


Harry No. 5 and the Half-Blood Prince

by Silverfox



Series: Harry No. 5 [6]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-08-26 15:29:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 30
Words: 31,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16684228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silverfox/pseuds/Silverfox
Summary: Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts Institute





	1. Chapter 1: The Other Minister

Chapter 1: The Other Minister

 

The Prime Minister had been about to leave his office and go to bed when that annoying painting that could not be removed announced the impending arrival of Cornelius Fudge.

Fudge was certainly his least favourite member of his cabinet, though the Prime Minister was fair enough to admit that that fact might at least in part be due to his not having had any say whatsoever in Fudge's appointment. In fact the Prime Minister wasn't quite sure how the Minister for Magic was chosen at all. Quite possibly it simply happened by magic!

On the other hand he thought he might have been able to live with the admittedly rare appearances of Cornelius Fudge in his office if the man had only ... well, used the door instead of the fireplace to enter the room, refrained from waving that spooky stick of his around and not turned his favourite teacup into a rodent before the Prime Minister had even had the chance to finish his tea!

Oh, and if each of his appearances so far hadn't been to announce some terrible news that the Prime Minister had found himself quite incapable of doing anything about.

"Please don't tell me there's been another mass breakout from Azkaban," were therefore the first words that escaped him when he saw Fudge step out of the happily dancing flames in the fireplace that he couldn't even remember having had lit. It was the middle of summer after all!

"No, no, not this time," Fudge reassured him. "In fact we even managed to recapture some of the escapees yesterday. Along with some new ones we had no idea were in league with You-Know-Who before. Though I must admit that we are not entirely sure of their guilt yet. They may have been under the imperius curse."

The Prime Minister had no idea what the imperius curse might be, but felt quite confident that it would be better for his peace of mind if he continued in ignorance and didn't ask.

"Peter Pettigrew?" he suggested hopefully instead.

"I fear not. He continues to be missing. We fear that he has probably reunited with You-Know-Who by now. In fact if Harry Potter's vision can be trusted he was instrumental in bringing him back to ... well life for lack of a better term. We have reason to believe that You-Know-Who is able to send the boy false visions, though, so we cannot take that as proof."

"Harry Potter?" the Prime Minister remembered. "Wasn't that the boy you took against his parents' will and are refusing to hand over to their chosen institute?"

"Well ... they are not his parents you see," Fudge hedged. He well remembered that he had promised to hand the boy over immediately the last time he had visited the Muggle Minister as he thought of the Prime Minister. "They are his aunt and uncle and were registered as his legal guardians in the Muggle world to protect him there. His actual parents are still alive, though and so the right of decision lies with his father and he is quite determined to keep the boy at Hogwarts Institute, which I have to admit I too think is best for a magical child, both for his proper education and for the sake of secrecy. We wouldn't want him to give our existence away by doing magic in front of his fellow students at a Muggle institute, would we? Just think of the uproar there would be!"

"That is of course true," the Prime Minister admitted. "But what am I supposed to do about the aunt and uncle then? They seem to be quite sure that the place is most dangerous and that they are called upon to rescue the child."

"I ... oh, I will inform Albus Dumbledore of the matter. I am sure that he will know what best to do about the Muggles." Fudge said a little impatiently. "We really have much bigger problems at the Ministry right now. We simply can't be expected to deal with the minor problems of a single individual under the circumstances."

The Prime Minister could have pointed out that one boy, one aunt, one uncle, one father and presumably also one mother did not total up to one individual, but decided to let the matter drop. No matter how much he didn't want to he still needed to know what the latest bad news from the Ministry of Magic were. Besides single families really ought to be too insignificant a matter for a minister to bother with.

"Very well," he said therefore. "What has happened then?"

"Well, first of all I have to inform you that You-Know-Who is back. Not only that, but he chose to announce that fact by appearing in the Ministry of Magic itself the day before yesterday. He caused some destruction and killed one of our best Aurors. Some people, unfortunately including civilians were injured. We managed to drive him off and capture several of his Death Eaters, however and the damage to the building itself should be repaired by the end of the week. No Muggles have come to any harm that we know of, but I must warn you that You-Know-Who is a known Muggle-hater and while he is at large nobody is safe."

"So what can we do to protect me ... my people?" the Prime Minister asked.

"Well, nothing I fear. He will attack using magic after all," Fudge admitted. "Also be advised that the dementors have abandoned Azkaban and are most likely in league with You-Know-Who. They cause depression among all who come near them and can suck out people's souls. Unfortunately they are invisible to Muggles, so there is very little you can do about that either. They do like lonely, dark and foggy places, though, so perhaps you could advise the Muggles to avoid those. You might claim that there is a serial killer on the loose, perhaps."

The Prime Minister nodded, though that was what he had already done about Peter Pettigrew.

"Ah yes, and I have been forced to step down so I am also here to introduce you to my successor."

The second wizard the Prime Minister had ever met arrived as if on clue making the Prime Minister wonder whether he'd been using some magic spell to spy on the conversation and time his entrance for best effect.

It only took the Minister about a minute to decide that he liked Rufus Scrimgeour even less than he did Cornelius Fudge.


	2. Chapter 2: Spinner's End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: A woman on a mission visits a Potions professor.

Chapter 2: Spinner's End

 

The dark-haired woman snuck into Hogwarts in the middle of the night. She did not know the passwords that would have let her into the common rooms and dorms of the students, but the route into the dungeons was free and familiar of old. She did not even encounter one of the castle's ghosts on her way.

She had been taught Potions in that classroom over there, locked now, but most likely still in use during the day. There had been the office of the Potions Professor who had also been her head of house. It had a used appearance as well, even though Professor Slughorn was no longer there. She didn't know where he was these days. Nobody had heard from him in a long time.

She knew the current Potions Professor too, though not as well. It was him that she had to talk to. As far as she knew he probably was using the same rooms Professor Slughorn had, but he was a tricky fellow, hard to judge, difficult to predict. She had seen very little of him since her return and before that they had never been close and it had been a very long time. She did not like meeting him on his own ground, but it had to be done.

His ground. Once this had been her home as well, now she had no right to be here and had to sneak in like a thief in the night.

Perhaps she knocked a bit too forcefully in her anger at that thought.

The door opened and the man looked as calm as ever anyway.

"Bellatrix," he greeted her calmly. "Should you really be here? If we are seen together ..."

"I am a lonely, childless woman, desperate to see her only nephew," she hissed.

"Indeed." His tone made it obvious what he thought of the excuse.

"I really am here to see Draco, Severus," she declared. "I have a message to give him and a right as his relative now that he has lost his father."

"You forget that he still has his mother," he reminded her. "It is up to her to make decisions over him now."

"That traitor!" she shrieked. "Do not talk of her to me! She is dead to me, you hear? Dead!"

"I suggest that you lower your voice," Severus said still calmly and softly. "You do not want to be heard. Or do you want Dumbledore to learn that you have a secret way in here? It seems rather too useful for our master's cause to waste on a mere visit to a child. How did you manage it anyway. I thought all the entrances were well warded against uninvited visitors."

"It is not a mere visit. I bear a secret message from our master," she announced proudly.

"Do you now?" Severus stated sounding almost bored. "So what is that message?"

"It is for Draco," she hissed. "Not for you."

"Ah, but Bellatrix, how am I to pass it on to the boy if you do not tell it to me?" he asked her.

"I will give it to him myself," she stated. "I merely need you to arrange the meeting."

"You will not," Severus returned. "We cannot risk it. The boy's loyalty is uncertain. If he reports having seen you or raises the alarm while you are here you will have given away the existence of an unguarded way into the institute and endangered both of us."

"Oh? And what if he were to report you?" Bellatrix challenged.

"I am his teacher and head of house," Severus smirked at her. "And Dumbledore is convinced that I am loyal to him. If the boy reports me all I need to do is to claim that I was testing his reaction to his father's arrest. My position and the secret of your visit will be perfectly safe. So what is the message?"

It took some convincing as Bellatrix was afraid to diverge from her master's commands and not entirely sure she could trust Severus, but in the end she had to give in or abandon her mission entirely.

He laughed when he heard the plan.

"Kill Albus Dumbledore? A mere child of sixteen? You cannot believe that our master has any real hope of success with that plan."

"Dumbledore will not expect such a pathetic assassin and will not be on his guard among the children and Draco will have the motivation of getting his father back if he succeeds. The Dark Lord intends to storm Azkaban and free all the prisoners as soon as Dumbledore is confirmed dead."

"He hasn't even met his father, Bellatrix," Severus informed her. "In fact he seemed to have so little interest in him that he asked to see his mother and stepfather first. That is why I am so concerned that he will raise the alarm."

"Didn't I tell you not to mention her to me!" Bellatrix shrieked.

"And I won't when I can avoid it, but this is highly relevant to the plan. The boy does not care for the promised reward as much as you expected. He might easily reject it entirely. At best he will accept half-heartedly. The more I think about it the less advisable it seems to pass this message on at all. It might be better to choose another child or offer a better reward."

Bellatrix raged and shrieked some more while Severus watched her impassively. He was tempted to ask whether she felt better now when she finally stopped, but that would only set her off again and waste more of his time. So all he did was make another attempt to find out how she had gotten into the institute and then let her go.

He closed the door behind her, walked over to the fireplace and threw a handful of floo powder into the flames.

"Albus Dumbledore," he instructed the floo.

"Severus?" the headmaster asked sleepily. "Another surprise Death Eater meeting?"

"No," the Potions Master replied dryly. "At least not of the sort you have in mind. I just received a visit from Bellatrix Black Lestrange, here in my office."

"How did she get in?" the headmaster demanded.

"She wouldn't say," Severus reported. "I suspect another secret tunnel that is as yet unknown to us. It cannot be easy to access, though, or we would have been visited by an army rather than a single agent."

"Still we cannot risk it. Next time a Death Eater might come in during the day and kill or abduct Harry."

"Actually it appears that they have a very different target in mind at the moment," Severus replied. "Bellatrix wanted to see Draco to inform him that the Dark Lord promises to free Lucius if Draco kills you for him."

There was a moment of silence at the other end.

"Did you let her see the boy?"

"No, but I might get in trouble for not passing on the message, even though I have explained that I doubt the boy's loyalty. Should I pass it on? I doubt that it can do much harm. Draco is hardly capable of murder."


	3. Chapter 3: Will and Won't

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: And here is yet another meeting between two politicians.

Chapter 3: Will and Won't

 

Albus Dumbledore wasn't in the least surprised to hear from the new Minister of Magic. He had heard from his predecessor right after his election as well. In fact Cornelius Fudge had called less than an hour after his election.

Considering that it was surprising how long Rufus Scrimgeour had waited.

Another surprise was that the new minister arrived in person rather than merely making a floo call.

"You were right about You-Know-Who's return," Scrimgeour confirmed after they had exchanged the necessary pleasantries. "And I owe my position to that fact. Nevertheless I can see Fudge's point as well."

"Do you now?" Albus asked conversationally. "I have to admit that I do not. Wilful blindness to a danger like that can have none but the worst consequences."

"It did prevent a mass panic among the voters," Rufus Scrimgeour pointed out. "Have you seen the Prophet today? How to recognise inferi, protection against the imperius, how to react at the sight of the dark mark, ..."

"Most of it isn't very practical advice," Albus allowed. "But it is finally warning the people to prepare for another war. That is a great relief."

"Nevertheless we cannot allow a mass panic or mass flight to the continent or overseas. The Ministry must be seen to be doing something and, well, I believe that we should make use of Harry Potter for that, but there is a problem with that move."

"There is indeed. Harry is not even sixteen yet. You cannot use him as a soldier!"

"Oh, of course not. That was never part of my plan. You have seen what theories the Daily Prophet is spreading about him, though. If we use him as a figurehead it will reassure the voters and all the boy will actually have to do is make the occasional public appearance, perhaps read out a speech or two at the most. Most likely it will even suffice if he is merely seen standing behind the actual speaker, but he is old enough to read fluently, isn't he?"

"But not old enough to be burdened with that much responsibility or to be trusted to shoulder it reliably. Teenagers are a strange mixture of maturity and childishness, Minister. A sixteen year old can be surprisingly capable of making very insightful moral decisions one moment and then torment a younger child just for fun the next. They simply cannot be trusted with such weighty matters."

"We will have him managed by an adult puppeteer of course," the Minister brushed that warning aside. "We have to involve his father anyway, since he is still a minor, but that is where the problem lies. As I understand it there has been some doubt about the custody of the boy? His parents are separated so his mother might make an attempt to influence him against his father and she is not a Ministry employee. We have little control over her. Then there are the Muggle aunt and uncle who are still calling for his return to the Muggle world. In fact even the Muggle Prime Minister is involved in the matter from what Fudge has told me. Apparently the man is quite annoyed and wants us to shut his Muggles up for him."

"The truth will be revealed to the Muggles and the boy on his birthday, which is soon enough that it ought to satisfy the Prime Minister. There is no need to worry about that."

"The boy might still be influenced by the Muggles and we have even less control over them than over the mother," Rufus Scrimgeour insisted. "And as for her. Why her husband is practically as good as a Muggle himself!"

"An interestingly prejudiced statement, Minister," Albus observed pointedly. "I advise you not to repeat it in public, or in front of the press." The Minister shot him a sharp look, but Albus continued undaunted. "And what do you want me to do about the boy's Muggle relatives or those who choose a Muggle-like lifestyle? I am merely his headmaster."

"You are an authority figure that he looks up to. He admires you. If you were to influence him to meet only his father, his rightful guardian, the undesirables could not influence him at all."

"The boy has a legal right to meet all the family members that he wants to and that agree to meet him. We cannot deny him that."

"Now see reason, Dumbledore!" the Minister demanded. "The political requirements outweigh the theoretical rights of one little boy. This is for the greater good and it isn't like it will cause the child any harm if you convince him that he doesn't want to meet his mother. He will have his father after all, a fine upstanding citizen and one of our best Aurors. What better role model could there be? It's quite a lot more than some other children get."

"And it is possible that he will choose that, but it ought to be by his own choice, not due to my influence," the headmaster said much more sharply. "To be entirely honest with you I am personally very much in favour of children getting to know Muggles and Squibs and a variety of lifestyles. It promotes tolerance and is the best prevention to them being misled into Voldemort's sort of prejudice."

"This isn't about tolerance and ideals, Dumbledore. This is about defence against You-Know-Who and maintenance of order!"

"I fear we must differ on this. I believe that ideals are exactly what Voldemort is all about and the only means by which we can defeat the Death Eaters in the long term."

It took quite a while for the Minister to regain an outer semblance of calm and an owl that arrived two hours after he left proved that he had cut his visit short without bringing up all he had meant to discuss.

Albus read the parchment though twice. Its content was quite surprising.

He had withdrawn all his order members from their safehouse at Grimauld Place after Sirius Black's death knowing that the Auror's closest surviving relative was Bellatrix Black Lestrange,but he had had some hope that Sirius had been wise enough to have made a will in favour of the younger Narcissa Black Potter. She too was his cousin after all and unlike the convicted Death Eater Bellatrix she was a fellow order member and the wife of his Auror partner and best friend James Potter.

Never in his wildest dreams however had he imagined that Sirius Black would leave his home to a boy that didn't even have any Black blood at all.

"A most interesting move, Sirius," he murmured to himself. "But quite tricky."

The magic might not transfer without a blood connection and then the house would still pass to Bellatrix Black Lestrange.

And even if it did work the order might still have lost the house. Harry wasn't an order member after all. He might not allow them to continue to use his property. At least they had won a respite of one year, though. Until Harry turned seventeen James Potter would continue to have control of all of his assets and he was an order member.

Once he finished his seventh year, though, Harry might want to live in Grimauld Place himself and would hardly want to share it with his former teachers and of course if his mother turned him against his father as the Minister feared, perhaps that would turn him against the order as well.

Yet, the words 'for the greater good' still were ringing ominously in Albus Dumbledore's mind.


	4. Chapter 4: Horace Slughorn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Few Muggles in this world own single family houses so where would Professor Slughorn hide?

Chapter 4: Horace Slughorn

 

Harry was quite surprised when Professor McGonagall informed him that he was to report to the headmaster's office. He couldn't remember having done anything wrong since flooing to the Ministry of Magic and he had already been scolded for that.

Then again it had been a very mild scolding on account of him having just watched his secret uncle Sirius die. Perhaps the headmaster thought that by now he was recovered enough to receive a more thorough one or be punished.

Thus Harry entered the office quite meekly and asked: "This is about Auror Black, isn't it?"

"Not directly, but he has left you a legacy. We still have to test whether it is magically valid and until you turn seventeen it will be managed by your ... legal guardians, but you might as well know that he at least intended for you to have his house. It is quite a large London town house with an old wizarding tradition and comes with a house elf. A very old and ill-mannered specimen, I fear, but he should still be useful if you should choose to live in London someday."

Harry stared at the headmaster. Uncle Sirius had rewarded him for getting him killed by leaving him his house? That was probably the most valuable thing he had owned!

"I don't want it!"

"Now, now, don't be hasty," the headmaster admonished him. "You do not know where you will work someday yet and once you are old enough it will be no problem to apparate to work every morning. Most wizarding companies do not have attached living places the way Muggle companies do since their employees can come in just as quickly from anywhere in the country by floo or apparition. Thus a house of your own is quite useful unless you want to live with a relative and if you'd rather have something of a different size or more modern you can sell Grimauld Place and use the money to buy something more to your taste. Once you are of age, that is. For now your legal guardians will take care of it for you. They could sell it if they see fit, but I think it is safe to assume that they will wait until they can discuss it with you. It is only a few more days until you turn sixteen and then in another year you will be able to take control of it yourself, after all.

"I don't want it," Harry repeated. "He shouldn't have left it to me."

"He didn't have any children," the headmaster reminded him. "And adopted you as his nephew instead. His closest living relative is Bellatrix Black Lestrange, the very woman who killed him. Don't you think that you are a better choice of heir than her?"

"Not much better," Harry mumbled, but decided not to protest anymore.

It was true that he would be an adult in a little over a year after all and then he could find a way to rid himself of the house without either himself or Bellatrix Black Lestrange profiting from it. Maybe he could dedicate it to some good cause, he thought, or make it a gift to someone.

"There is a more urgent matter to attend to, though," the headmaster said after a moment. "The new school year will start the day after tomorrow and the institute is once again short a professor. I don't know how you feel about it, but I myself would prefer not to have the Ministry send us another staff member, so you are going to help me convince an old colleague to come back out of retirement. I believe you have proven that you are quite capable of using the floo system, so please follow me to the Hogshead."

And before Harry could remind him that students were not allowed into the Hogshead the headmaster had already disappeared in the flames. So Harry felt he had no other option than to pick up a handful of floo powder as well, throw it into the fireplace, step in and shout "the Hogshead!"

The world whirled about him and then he stumbled out of another fireplace and fell onto a hard and none too clean wood floor. The landing on the Minister's expensive carpet definitely had been a lot more comfortable.

On the other hand nobody here scolded him for getting the floor dirty and all he had to do was get up and brush the soot off his robes.

Perhaps the headmaster remembered the rules for Hogsmeade visits after all, because he kept his conversation with the innkeeper very short and then took Harry's hand and apparated them both away.

This time Harry landed on his feet, though that was mostly due to the headmaster's hand holding him upright. He still felt dizzy and suspected that a gasp might have escaped him when his feet had hit the ground. He got little time to recover as the headmaster led him on to a dilapidated hut in the wilderness that they had appeared in.

Nobody answered Professor Dumbledore's knock and it soon became apparent why. The inside, though it looked nothing near as comfortable as Professor Hagrid's hut, was a shambles and at first Harry thought that Death Eaters must have attacked and destroyed the place.

But then the headmaster poked a broken chair with his wand and it revealed itself to be a wizard in disguise.

Together the two adult wizards set to tidying up and the inside of the hut changed into a comfortable wizarding home.

"The broken down old hut is a more permanent disguise," Professor Slughorn, as Professor Dumbledore introduced the other man explained. "It is really an old forest keeper's cottage, in quite good repair, though rather on the small side. I spelled the inside larger, added a few rooms and transfigured myself some furniture and there you are, a perfectly comfortable and safe home. They'll never find me here."

"It must be lonely, though," the headmaster suggested after pretending to admire his friend's spellwork for a while. "And boring having nothing to do but sit here all alone all day, never seeing anybody, having no news of your friends and former students. You always were so fond of company."

"Don't you miss being productive?" Harry wondered, but apparently Horace Slughorn didn't care all that much about being productive. He actually claimed to be perfectly happy without it!

Harry didn't understand at all how that was possible. After all it was being productive that made one happy, but then it turned out that the man's happiness wasn't perfect after all. Professor Dumbledore was right. He did miss contact with the other members of a group he called the Slug-Club so much that he agreed to return to Hogwarts institute.


	5. Chapter 5: An Excess of Phlegm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Harry has some concerns about Professor Slughorn and Hogwarts institute is still looking for another new staff member.

Chapter 5: An Excess of Phlegm

 

Harry wasn't quite sure what to say when Professor Dumbledore asked him whether he liked Professor Slughorn. There wasn't anything about him that Harry felt merited dislike and he was an adult, but the idea of someone thinking that he could be happy without being productive made him uncomfortable and he wondered whether it mightn't be a sign of insanity.

Surely it required correction even if it was just a misconception?

The headmaster put his own interpretation on Harry's reluctance and explained that he was right to be a little wary of the Slug-Club.

"Not that there is anything wrong with it, but one must always keep in mind that its primary purpose is to serve Professor Slughorn's ambitions. He does not mean the members any ill, though and is very supportive of their careers helping them by introducing them to influential people in their chosen field. If you are looking for honest friendship and playful camaraderie, though ... well, you'd be better advised to try the Old Badgers' Club or the gobstone team."

Harry wasn't entirely sure what to make of that either, but decided that Hermione would probably be able to interpret it and tell him whether he wanted to join or not.

At the moment he was inclined not to. It was probably best to keep as much distance as possible from someone that might be insane.

"I believe we can discontinue your private lessons with Professor Snape, by the way," the headmaster announced when they had returned to his office "The old excuse no longer exists and Voldemort is now aware of the advantage the connection between you gives you. I believe he will keep it closed at his end from now on, so learning Occlumency will no longer be a priority for you. Instead you will have private lessons with me to prepare you to fulfil your part in the prophecy."

At first Harry felt very honoured and proud at the prospect, but on the way back to the common room he began to think of what advanced spells the headmaster would probably want to teach him and realised that he was likely to disappoint him by his lack of talent and skill.

Thus he was quite downcast when he arrived and re-joined his friends.

"Oh Harry!" Hermione exclaimed when she saw him. "Where have you been?"

"To help the headmaster hire a new professor," he confessed and was immediately bombarded with questions by everybody who'd heard.

He gave them the best description of Professor Slughorn that he could without telling all of Gryffindor that he thought he was insane or about the headmaster's warning about the Slug-Club.

"I don't know what I think of him yet," he finished. "I want to give it some time. I thought Professor Umbridge looked nice the first time I saw her and look how she turned out."

"Well, you missed some strange events," Ron told him. "While you were gone Mr. Filch and two house-elves went out to Professor Hagrid's hut and cleared it out. They even took away his dog."

 

The next morning they found an advertisement for a new groundskeeper for Hogwarts institute in the Daily Prophet.

"Well, Professor Hagrid has been a Professor and groundskeeper for three years now," Harry decided after a moment of puzzlement. "I suppose it was more than he could do properly and he decided to give up the less productive position."

"But where is he?" Hermione asked. "If he is back to teach us and make career decisions, why hasn't he appeared at any meals since he was arrested? I think he must still be in some Ministry cell and they are replacing him entirely."

Harry shrugged. If so it was Professor Hagrid's own fault for bringing a giant to the institute and Harry had other worries.

"Listen, there are some things about my visit to Professor Dumbledore I haven't told you yet," he said and explained about the prophecy, the private lessons and the headmaster's comments on the Slug-Club.

"Well, it cannot hurt to join," Hermione declared after a while. "It might help us get the jobs we want someday."

"But ... Hermione, he claims that he can be happy without being productive," Harry protested.

"So he has a strange tick," Hermione shrugged it off. "He isn't the only one. Just think of Professor Hagrid's love of dangerous pets. At least Professor Slughorn's laziness isn't going to hurt anyone."

"He might be a bad influence on the younger students, though," Draco suggested a little worriedly. "They might believe him."

"Well, they'll discover their mistake if they try living without being productive, and as long as all the other Professors tell them better I doubt many will," Hermione said. "There can't be any lasting damage."

"He still makes me uncomfortable," Harry declared. "I think I'd rather not join."

"Well, I suppose if your greatest ambition really is to be a gardener you won't ever need the sort of support the Slug-Club could give you," Hermione snapped.

"You still think I should become a nurse?" Harry asked her. "Even though it doesn't feel productive enough?"

"No, but that doesn't mean that you should be a gardener instead," Hermione returned still sounding angry. "Just choose something else!"

"Why don't you wait until you have seen your OWL results," Draco suggested reasonably. "You don't even know for sure that you didn't make the O in Potions after all."

Harry had very little hope of getting into the NEWT level Potions class that he'd need to fulfil his ambition of becoming a medical brewer, though. Perhaps his results would suggest some other career path, though?

But what might that be? He didn't think he was any good at anything other than flying which wasn't even an OWL subject and was no use in any career other than professional Quidditch player and that was so unproductive that Harry would never consider it. Perhaps he should discuss it with Professor McGonagall?

That definitely would have to wait until he knew his OWL results, though. Besides Harry thought that his head of house would push him to stick with his choice of nurse since it had originally been her idea.

Did he dare ask the headmaster for advice? The private lessons should give him the opportunity.


	6. Chapter 6: Draco's Detour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Just another leaving feast and a few speculations

Chapter 6: Draco's Detour

 

It was strange how little Harry found that he cared for the leaving feast that year even though it would be the last time he ever saw Angelina and Alicia. It should also have been Frederick and George's leaving feast and that memory stung a little, but Ron had met them at his mother's house several times and had reported that they looked well and happy and not at all sad to have been expelled.

"What's the matter with you two?" Neville demanded when neither Harry nor Hermione showed any enthusiasm for the delicious food that materialised in front of them. "It's a feast. Why aren't you happy?"

"Frederick and George should be here," Harry told him. "It ought to be their feast and I miss them."

He served himself some of the nearest soup anyway to satisfy Neville that he wasn't starving himself and only realised too late that it was pea soup. Harry wasn't a big fan of peas, but on the other hand they were good for you and his secret uncle Sirius would probably have wanted him to eat them.

Uncle Sirius would never get to eat pea soup again. Uncle Sirius would never get to attend a feast again! And it was all Harry's fault. He probably deserved to have to eat pea soup at every feast from now on.

"They've got it good, Harry," Ron assured him between large gulps of his own soup. "They get to have dinner with Mum and Charlie and Bill and Percy every day. And last week George said they might have found productive jobs as well. They were just taking a little time to think it over because it's not exactly what they wanted to do."

"Oh?" Hermione looked up from her book with a hint of interest. "What have they been offered?"

"Well, one of them is probably going to start as an alpha-tester at Zonko's," Ron explained. "That might eventually lead to a chance to switch into actual joke development. They don't currently have any other openings except in serial production and that's absolutely not what the twins want to do, so the other will probably accept a position in the Ministry's potions lab. It's a really important and useful job, Mum says, and much better than the one at Zonko's, but it means analysing potions of all sorts and no chance to go into development or to specialise in prank potions."

"That really is an excellent offer for someone just out of school and without any NEWTs," Hermione commented. "He really should take it. Don't you think so, too, Harry. I bet you'd love to do that, wouldn't you?"

"I don't know," Harry said. "It doesn't sound as productive as actually brewing potions. I suppose I'd like it a lot better than being a nurse, though."

He didn't actually think so. Both looked equally unproductive to him, but he thought it would please Hermione if he sounded like he was looking into alternatives to gardening.

"Well, you are going to get some NEWTs after all," Hermione said. "Those will get you better options."

"Yes," Neville said. "A Potions NEWT ought to get you a brewing job if the twins can get an analysing one without."

"I need an O on my Potions OWL to get into the NEWT class, though," Harry reminded Neville. "And my potion was a little thin. I don't think I'll make it."

"Oh, I wish we knew our OWL results already," Hermione sighed. "I'm so worried. I know I made a mistake in the Runes translation and I totally messed up Arithmancy and ... I bet the Professors already know our results. They are just holding them back until the day after tomorrow."

"I don't think so," Neville said to Harry's surprise. "The commission had to supervise and grade the NEWT exams as well and those results had to be ready today so the seventh years know where they are going after the feast. Theyâ€™ve probably left at least some of our written work for tomorrow and it wouldn't be fair to tell us only some. I do hope my parents will be pleased with mine. They're Muggles of course, so they won't really know what the subjects are all about."

"Are grades terribly important to them then?" Harry asked Neville.

"Oh, I wouldn't know. I haven't had my birthday letter yet, after all. I'll find out the day after tomorrow."

"But then how do you know that they are Muggles?" Hermione asked. "You're not supposed to know anything about them."

"I don't," Neville defended himself. "But I came here from a Muggle institute. If my parents were wizards they'd have put me in the wizarding primary institute."

"Except that some children were removed to Muggle nursery institutes after You-Know-Who tried to kill me," Harry reminded him. "I grew up in Muggle institutes as well, and I know my parents were wizards."

"Yes, but you had a special prophecy made about you. I'm just any ordinary child, nothing at all special. I wouldn't have needed any special protection."

He said it so very naturally that Harry simply knew that he meant it and for a moment he wished with all his heart that he could be like Neville, ordinary and not at all desiring to be special. That was exactly how a child ought to feel. Neville would never have fallen into the trap of accepting a secret relative or run off in an attempt to save him. Neville would never have gotten Uncle Sirius killed. Why couldn't Neville have been the prophecy child that had to kill the Dark Lord or be killed by him?

Actually ...

"The prophecy could have been about you as well," Harry realised. "It just said 'born as the seventh month dies'. Your birthday is only a few hours before mine, isn't it?"

"Well, that's your proof then," Neville said. "If I'd been at the wizarding institute as well, surely You-Know-Who would have wanted to make sure by killing us both, but I'm still alive and have no scar. I'm Muggle-born."

Harry had to concede that point.


	7. Chapter 7: The Slug-Club

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Maybe the Slug-Club isn't such a bad thing after all. ;)

Chapter 7: The Slug-Club

 

"So what's that about the prophecy?" Hermione demanded when they got back to the common room. "I thought you said it smashed when you threw it at Auror Potter?"

"It did," Harry confirmed. "But Professor Dumbledore told me what it said."

"So?" Ron urged him. "What did it say?"

"Really weird stuff," Harry said and then repeated as much of it as he remembered. "The headmaster says that it means that I can kill You-Know-Who."

"Or he you," Hermione observed. "I don't like it."

"He's already tried to kill me anyway," Harry reminded them. "And he failed."

"But he'll keep trying if he hears anything about the content of the prophecy," Hermione told him. "I don't like it. I don't like it at all."

"Would you prefer it if nobody could kill him at all?" Ron asked her. "Harry is our chance! Our hope to defeat him! That is so cool!"

"Cool?" Hermione shrieked. "It's likely to get him killed!"

Unsurprisingly that outburst drew the attention of everybody else in the common room and Hermione had to think of an explanation to satisfy them very quickly.

"Oh, haven't any of you read the Daily Prophet?"she asked them. "It's calling Harry the Chosen One now and claiming that it's predicted he'll kill You-Know-Who."

"So?" Katie asked. "Who's going to believe such nonsense?"

"Harry did survive his attacks twice," Dean pointed out.

"He was lucky," Hermione said. "But how long will that luck last if all the Death Eaters come after him now?"

"Do you really think they will?" Harry asked her a little nervously.

The Death Eaters were a lot of very dangerous adults and he was only one boy who was particularly bad at Defence Against the Dark Arts.

That thought wouldn't leave him alone for the rest of the day and made it almost impossible to go to sleep. When he finally did he had nightmares of being chased by Auror Potter, You-Know-Who and Bellatrix Black Lestrange and woke up screaming.

Luckily that was nothing new to his dorm-mates and they only grumbled about his visions a little before turning back over and leaving him alone. Harry tried to stay awake after that, but eventually he must have dropped off again, for suddenly he opened his eyes and it was bright daylight.

He sat up and looked around. The room was empty! The others had already gone to breakfast!

Harry jumped out of bed, threw on his robes without even washing and raced down into the Great Hall. It was empty except for a group of house elves who were scrubbing the floor.

"No, no, no, young Master!" One of them told him. "Young Master must go. Elves must prepare the big feast."

The big feast? Had Harry actually missed lunch as well as breakfast?

He went looking for his friends, but instead was found by a second year Slytherin who brought him an invitation to Professor Slughorn's office which appeared to be the location of the first meeting of the newly revived Slug-Club.

Harry almost declined, but then he realised that there would be food at the meeting and he had missed two meals. He was too hungry to wait until the arrival feast.

So he went and sat in the chair Professor Slughorn assigned him, between Neville and Blaise, ate cold pheasant and cake and let the Professor introduce him to Cormack and Marcus.

Harry didn't particularly like either of them and it was rather uncomfortable to listen to Professor Slughorn talk about their parents, but at least Neville was there as well and didn't know his any more than Harry, yet.

"What, you don't?" Professor Slughorn marvelled when Neville told him so. "I thought you were in sixth year."

"I am," Neville confirmed. "Or, I will be after the feast tonight."

"But then you must be sixteen."

"Not yet," Neville explained patiently. "My birthday is tomorrow. And I'm not even the youngest in our year. That would be Harry."

That information seemed to confuse the professor and he pushed some more cake on them to cover it before changing the topic to OWL results and subject choices.

"Well, I would like to take Potions most of all," Harry said since he couldn't think of anything more interesting. "But I need an Outstanding OWL for that and my potion was a little thin."

"An O?" Professor Slughorn sounded surprised. "Did Professor Snape demand that? Well, worry no longer. I am quite happy to accept students with Es and if the subject is really important to them even to try ones with As. Do sign up for the subject whatever your grade, Harry, and we'll see how it works out."

Harry beamed. Hermione had been right about the Slug-Club after all! It really was useful to be a member.

"Then I can still become a medical brewer!" he exclaimed in delight.

"Ah, that is your ambition, is it?" Professor Slughorn said happily. "I always thought your mother should have chosen a career in Potions, you know. She was one of the biggest talents I ever taught. But she would insist on preferring Charms." He sighed. "Ah well, now her son will make up for it."

Harry could only hope that he would live up to the Professorâ€™s expectations. He certainly wasn't a brilliant Potions talent as Professor Slughorn thought his mother had been. He was just an average student who wanted a productive career.

And what if he'd failed his Potions OWL entirely?


	8. Chapter 8: Snape Victorious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: A sorting mistake?

Chapter 8: Snape Victorious

 

The new first years looked impossibly small and childish, Harry couldn't help thinking when they were marched into the Great Hall to be sorted. He felt quite glad that he wasn't a Prefect and wouldn't have to deal with them. He felt sorry for Ron, though of course the fifth year prefects would be the primary contacts for the little ones and Ron would most likely hardly have anything to do with the girls at all.

"Is it just me," Seamus asked. "Or are there fewer than usual?"

Harry didn't understand what he meant at first, but Hermione nodded.

"I suppose with the parents now knowing that there is another war starting a lot of magical parents have probably had their children transferred to institutes in safe countries instead," she said. "Who knows, Hogwarts might be attacked."

"Why would anyone attack an institute full of children?" little Dennis who'd been sitting close to them asked "We can't do either side any harm."

"You-Know-Who attacked an institute to kill Harry once before," Seamus pointed out. "And now Harry has actually gotten some of his followers arrested. Back then he was just a baby."

Dennis grew very pale at that and Harry too felt somehow uncomfortable. The prophecy was a very good reason to come after him he realised and every year that You-Know-Who waited to kill him Harry would learn more spells to defend himself with. Did You-Know-Who realise just how bad Harry was at Defence Against the Dark Arts at all? He must have read at least as much of Harry's knowledge as Harry had of his when You-Know-Who had possessed him at the Ministry, but then his thoughts had been full of Uncle Sirius. Had he thought of Defence Against the Dark Arts at all? Had You-Know-Who seen things Harry hadn't actually thought of? Surely there hadn't been time?

But if he'd only actually been able to read Harry's thoughts during the possession how had he known that Harry even knew much less cared for Auror Black in the first place?

At least fewer first years meant a shorter sorting ceremony. Despite the pheasant and cake Harry was hungry again and he didnâ€™t particularly care where all these little children went. It quite annoyed him when a particularly tiny redhead called Mafalda number two took almost five full minutes to sort.

Finally the hat shouted "Hufflepuff!" though and Professor McGonagall called on "Nathalie number four!"

To everybody's amusement two little girls started forward and the professor had to repeat "Number four, I said. Only one of you can be Nathalie number four."

One of the girls blushed, stopped and hung her head and the other sat on the stool.

"Say, is that another of your siblings?" Neville asked Ron.

"Who?" Ron asked. "Nathalie or the fool who doesn't even know her own name?"

"What?" Neville sounded just as confused for a moment. "No, no the one before that went into Hufflepuff. Mafalda? She has the same hair as you and the twins."

"Does she?" Ron said. "I hadn't noticed. Gin ... I mean ... uh ... I don't have a sister that young, no."

"She does look a lot like a Weasley, though," Hermione agreed. "Maybe she's your cousin, if she can't be your sister."

"Gryffindor!" the hat announced before Ron could reply to that and they stopped talking and applauded dutifully to welcome Nathalie number four in their house.

"Nathalie number five!" Professor McGonagall announced as soon as the little black-haired girl had sat down.

"Did you hear that, Ron?" Hermione said sharply. "She does know her name. It's Nathalie number five. She just misheard the number. That's not at all surprising considering how similar four and five sound and when there probably were people whispering next to her."

Ron shrugged. "Alright," he allowed. "But she should still have listened more closely."

"Indeed she should!" the black haired Nathalie declared even though Ron hadn't been talking to her. "Pathetic little bitch stealing my name."

Somehow Harry didn't think Nathalie was a very nice girl and felt even more glad that he wouldn't have to deal with the first years much. He'd still have preferred if she'd been in another house, though. Then he wouldn't have had to deal with her at all.

"Gryffindor!" the hat announced again to everyone's surprise.

"No!" black-haired Nathalie number four screamed. "She can't be!"

"What, that pathetic wimp?" escaped Ron as well, though fortunately not loud enough that brown-haired Nathalie or anyone at another table could have heard.

Harry too had some doubts. This tiny scrap of a girl with her bowed head and hesitant steps didn't look at all brave to him. Mafalda, the new Hufflepuff, had a more Gryffindor-like appearance to him.

That impression might be due to her resemblance to the Weasleys, though. As far as Harry knew all of Ron's family had been Gryffindors.

Harry once again dutifully applauded as the second Nathalie approached and ...

"Don't you dare sit here!" the first Nathalie hissed as the second reached the head of the table where the first years were sitting. "Name thief!"

"Yeah, go away," another new Gryffindor said. "You're no real Gryffindor and we don't want you."

"Now really," Hermione chided. "Of course she is a real Gryffindor. We all just saw her get sorted."

"Are you a nurse?" the black haired Nathalie demanded.

"Why, no," Hermione replied quite confused by the question.

"Then you have no right whatsoever to tell others what to do, bigmouth!"

"Why you!"

But just then Ginevra got up and took Nathalie number five by the hand. "Never mind, Hermione," she said. "Nathalie can sit with us today and I'm sure Professor McGonagall will sort out the mistake soon enough."


	9. Chapter 9: The Half-Blood Prince

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: OWL results, NEWT subject choices and Harry wins a consolation price

Chapter 9: The Half-Blood Prince

 

The situation between the two Nathalies didn't improve in the least overnight. In fact, it appeared that by the time they had reached their dorm the brown-haired one had suddenly found some courage in her after all and the black haired one's attempt to throw her possessions out of the room had resulted in a fistfight that had kept all the Gryffindor girls up well past curfew as Hermione told the boys at breakfast.

"Well," Harry remarked. "Professor McGonagall is with them now. She'll sort them out."

"She's just handing out schedules," Hermione corrected him. "She doesn't have time for anything more now."

Indeed their head of house soon moved on to the third years where the electives were creating a lot of confusion. Harry well remembered how complicated it had all seemed when they'd first had different time tables among dorm mates.

"Professor Hagrid still isn't back," Hermione broke into his thoughts. "Look, Professor Grubbly-Plank is at the head table."

Indeed she was, though she soon finished her meal, got up and left.

Harry and his friends were sitting in front of empty plates as well by now and it was almost 9 am, but they couldn't go to class, because they still didn't have their schedules, nor did they know what their classes would even be that year!

"We'll be late for our first class!" Harry fretted. "If it's Professor Snape ..."

"Then the whole class will be late," Ron said more reasonably. "All the other sixth years are still here as well."

As was Professor Snape as a glance over at the Slytherin table revealed, but he was handing out schedules to the fifth years now while Professor McGonagall was still with the third years.

"You might not even have a first lesson today, Harry," Hermione assured him. "We'll have a lot more free hours to study in now that we'll be in NEWT classes."

That sounded promising and the next time Harry glanced down the table the third years were leaving and Professor McGonagall was walking towards them.

"Sixth years," she addressed them in a very serious tone. "You are now starting into your NEWT years and must choose which subjects to continue. It is recommended that you pick only four, but if you feel confident that you can handle the workload you are free to choose as many as you like. Do remember that every NEWT level subject is very demanding however. Also remember that your choice of NEWTs will limit your future career options, so keep in mind what future career you are aiming for as well as your OWL results. Most NEWT classes require a minimum OWL grade of students - a minimum we expect every student that really has the interest and talent to continue the subject will be sure to meet easily. Therefore I will check your choices before you make them final. I will now hand each of you two sheets of parchment. One is your OWL results letter, the other your NEWT application form."

And she did indeed hand each student a form, but then Harry waited in vain for his OWL results. On his one side Hermione was eagerly writing down her subjects while on his other Ron was frowning at his form mumbling something that might have been "Transfigurations or Charms?" and Harry still didn't know his grades!

"Harry and Neville?" Professor McGonagall said. "If you could come over here."

The two boys looked at each other in puzzlement.

"Do you think we failed all our OWLs?" Harry asked Neville.

Neville shrugged.

"I doubt it. Maybe some, but not all. Not both of us," he said.

Still Harry felt very nervous as they walked over to where the Professor was waiting for them.

"Did you bring your forms? Good. Sit down!" the Transfigurations teacher said. "Unfortunately I cannot allow either of you to see his OWL results sheet since they are marked with your full names and you are not allowed to see your last names yet."

"But Professor!" Neville protested. "My birthday is today!"

"And you will receive your OWL results once you have read your birthday letter tonight, but I cannot allow you to learn your name from somewhere else before that," the Professor declared. "I can however tell you your results and advise you in your choice of NEWT subjects. Now both of you I am sorry to say have failed Astronomy, as have quite a number of students that had your practical exam slot. There can be no doubt that the interruption by the Auror's visit is to blame and you have the option to re-take the exam. Usually I advise students against that, but since failing was due to outer circumstances in your case you do have a reasonable chance to pass in a second attempt. Does either of you feel that he needs an Astronomy OWL for his future career?"

They exchanged looks again, shrugged at each other and then Neville said: "I don't think so. I don't believe it is all that relevant for working with plants, is it?"

"Well, some potion ingredients need to be harvested during certain moon phases, but the subject isn't required for that. All you need for it is a moon calender after all. What about you, Harry?"

Harry shook his head. If you didn't need it to tend magical plants, surely you didn't for non-magical ones either.

"Besides Astronomy, you Harry, also failed History of Magic and only just scraped through in Divination. Since there are no unusual circumstances I strongly advise you not to go for a career in either direction, but then I believe you never considered that anyway."

"No Professor, I never really liked them," Harry admitted.

Professor McGonagall nodded. "So much for your pronounced weaknesses then. Now let's look at your particular strengths. Neville, I think you will be pleased to hear that you have not only an Outstanding, but in fact the very highest score in your year in Herbology. This is a very strong indication that the career choice you suggested last year, herbologist, is indeed the perfect choice for you. I trust you haven't had a change of heart since then either?"

"Oh no, Professor!" Neville exclaimed beaming with relief. "There's nothing I'd like more!"

"Then I suggest that you put down Herbology as your first choice in your form."

Neville nodded eagerly and started to scribble.

"Now in your case, Harry, it isn't quite as clear. You too have received one of the best Outstandings in the year, but it is in Defence Against the Dark Arts, while you told me you were most interested in careers in the fields of Potions and Herbology."

Harry's heart sank.

"Then I didn't make the Outstanding in Potions?" he asked. It didn't have to be the best in the year after all, not even close!

"You got Exceeds Expectations in Potions," Professor McGonagall informed him. "Professor Snape would not have accepted you into his NEWTs level class, but Professor Slughorn is a little less demanding. However considering your excellent result in Defence Against the Dark Arts don't you think that Auror might ..."

"No!" Harry shouted causing several other students all over the hall to look up from their forms. "I hate Aurors. They're awful."

"Very well. Still medical brewer then?"

"Yes!" Harry said emphatically. "Or gardener."

"You will need to sign up for Potions then," Professor McGonagall instructed. "And I suggest making Herbology your second choice. It combines well with Potions and is the closest subject to gardening that we have."

"Should I make Potions my second choice then?" Neville asked. "Do I have the grades for it?"

Professor McGonagall nodded. "That is an excellent idea. Do you have any other particular preferences? I still recommend that you take Defence Against the Dark Arts, Harry, even if you do not want to make it your career. Not a lot of people passed that this year so you must have some talent and it might well come in useful in these troubled times. Even brewers and gardeners can't be sure that they will not be attacked by Death Eaters these days."

Harry agreed to that. After all he knew that You-Know-Who was after him. He didn't understand how he had managed to get such a good grade in his worst subject at all, though. Had he been drawing knowledge from his connection with You-Know-Who during the exam without being aware of it?

Neville decided to copy that choice as well and then suggested Transfigurations which Professor McGonagall agreed to in Harry's case, but declined in Neville's pointing him towards Charms instead since he had done much better in that exam. Then she collected both boys' forms, handed them their schedules and went to check on the rest of the Gryffindors.

Harry saw with some relief that he really had this lesson off, but Hermione soon rushed off to her Ancient Runes class, closely followed by Ron, Lavender and Parvati who were on their way to Divination.

It came as a bit of a shock to Harry when he learned that he wouldn't have exactly the same subjects as Ron ... or any of his friends in fact.

Ron, Hermione and Draco were with him in Defence Against the Dark Arts, though and that was the very first subject he had that year. Professor Snape made them practise non-verbal casting which was pretty boring, since Hermione was the only one that actually managed to do it at all.

In the afternoon however they had Potions and Ron hadn't chosen that. For reasons that were totally inexplicable to Harry he had decided to continue Charms instead. Of course it was a more reasonable choice than Divination, but Harry still called him an idiot for picking it.

So Harry shared a table with Hermione, Neville and Draco, managed to blow up his cauldron and watched his spilt potion ruin his brand new Potions book instead of winning him the vial of Felix Felicis that Professor Slughorn had promised the student who brewed the best potion that day as a reward.

At least Harry did get a sort of consolation price as Professor Slughorn gave him an old Potions book that he'd found forgotten in a desk drawer. It looked very old, had some bent corners and had been scrawled into on almost every page, but at least it was more readable than Harryâ€™s new one was now.

Hermione predictably won the Felix Felicis.


	10. Chapter 10: The House of Gaunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Harry finally gets his birthday letter and finds out who his relatives are.

Chapter 10: The House of Gaunt

 

What followed that evening was the biggest birthday disaster Harry had yet seen and nobody he knew had had a really good sixteenth birthday.

Well, the twins and Percy had and Ron would have had a great one as well, if only his father hadn't been murdered by You-Know-Who's horrible snake.

Neville too was worried by the experience of watching other people's birthday parties. His hands shook when he picked up the birthday letter and he was barely able to open and unfold it.

Then he burst into tears.

Harry and several others asked him what the matter was, but he couldn't say it through his tears. So they started guessing, but Neville kept shaking his head. No, his parents weren't dead, not both of them, nor one either. No, they weren't Death Eaters and they weren't divorced either. Nor were they Muggles that didn't understand him.

And Neville kept crying worse and worse.

Finally Professor Dumbledore came over to the Gryffindor table and led him away. He didn't return to have dinner or eat the birthday cake or even unwrap his gifts.

It was some time after curfew when Neville finally came to the common room and of course the other boys all dug into him right away.

"They don't want me!" Neville finally burst out and then started crying again. "They decided not to know me and I'll never even learn why!"

All he'd learned from his birthday letter was his name and the fact that his parents had declined the offer to write to him and tell him about themselves or to meet him.

They spent some time trying to guess why anyone would not want to know Neville, but neither Neville himself nor Harry found that a particularly pleasant occupation. It only made Harry wonder about his own parents and the birthday letter he'd receive the next day.

Most likely his parents were dead. At least his primary institutesâ€™s headmaster had told him so and when he'd mentioned it to Professor Dumbledore he had at least not denied it.

In the same way he had learned that he had an aunt and uncle who were probably Muggles since they had wanted Harry to go to a Muggle secondary institute. The headmaster had said that he could still ask to meet his aunt and uncle when he turned sixteen even if he chose Hogwarts Secondary Institute, so he could probably still expect a proper birthday letter despite being an orphan.

That was what he hoped for anyway. Back in third year however he had overheard a conversation between some adults that indicated that his name might be Harry Potter and his parents James and Lily alive and well. That might be considered a good outcome as well, except that Harry had met an Auror Potter whose first name was probably James and he had rarely met a person he liked less.

Besides Harry had good reasons to believe that Auror Potter was a Death Eater spy among the Aurors. That, he decided, would be the worst possible outcome, much worse than to find out that his aunt and uncle didn't want him.

Of course he might well have misunderstood what those adults back in third year had been talking about. He'd been way too young to understand adult conversations after all, but there also was the fact that Draco insisted that he and Harry were sort of brothers, because Draco's mother was married to Harry's father.

If Harry's father had been killed when Harry and Draco had been babies he could scarcely have had time to marry Draco's mother. Or could he? Surely a headmaster wouldn't lie to a child!

Harry was quite inattentive in his classes the next day, which earned him a scolding from Professor McGonagall and even a gentle reprimand from Professor Sprout, but he simply couldn't keep his mind on anything other than his relatives and the letter.

In the end he chose to do what Neville had done and open the letter first. He wouldn't be able to enjoy the cake until he knew.

So he snatched up the letter the moment he reached the table and tore it open. Three sheets of parchment fell out. Parchment, not paper as it had been for Dean and Lavender, his Muggle born classmates. These could not have come from a Muggle aunt and uncle.

Upon inspection the first parchment seemed to be from the Ministry, or maybe the school. It informed him that his name was Harry James Potter, his father Auror James Potter and his mother Lily Evans Prewett who had at the time of his birth been Lily Evans Potter.

His parents had been divorced three years after his birth and James Potter was now married to Narcissa Black Potter. Narcissa Black Potter had one child from a previous marriage: Draco Malfoy. She also had two sisters. One of them, Bellatrix Black Lestrange, was married to Rastaban Lestrange and the other, Andromeda Black Tonks to a Muggle. They had one daughter: Auror Nymphadora Tonks. There were no other living relatives on that side of the family.

Lily Evans Prewett was married to Claudius Prewett, a squib, and had a daughter with him: Mafalda Prewett, currently known as Mafalda number two of Hufflepuff house.

Harry looked over at the Hufflepuff table, but couldn't find little Mafalda. Well, obviously she wasn't related to Ron after all.

But when Harry mentioned it to Ron his friend's eyes grew very wide.

"Why, then she might indeed be my cousin!" he exclaimed. "My mother's Molly Prewett Weasley."

That made Harry feel a little better about his parentage. Perhaps his mother and her side of the family were worth having after all.

Lily Evans Prewett had one sister, Petunia Evans Dursley, a Muggle, who was married to Vernon Dursley, a Muggle, and they had one son: Dudley Dursley, a Muggle, who was exactly the same age as Harry and attended Smeltings Secondary Institute. It took Harry a moment to associate that with his long ago room-mate Dudley from the primary institute. Could it be?

"I'll simply do what Draco did," Harry announced after reading the sheet through a second time. "I'll decline to meet my father and ask for my mother instead."

"But Harry!" Draco protested. "Your father is what makes us brothers!"

"I don't like him," Harry declared and the second sheet did nothing to change that.

It was a letter from his father informing him on what day he would make time to meet Harry, of the great Potter heritage and what Harry owed it and in how many ways he was a disappointment to his father. Auror Potter was deeply ashamed that a son of his could have been so pathetic as to have to signal for help in the last task of the Triwizard Tournament.

The rest of the parchment was filled by James' highly unflattering opinion of Lily. He demanded that Harry had nothing to do with his mother? Well, Draco could say whatever he wanted to, Harry would not agree to that.

The third parchment unsurprisingly was a letter from Harry's mother and no more flattering to Auror Potter than his letter was to her, but then Auror Potter probably deserved that. Lily Evans Prewett went on at length about how horrible and heartless he had been to force Harry to risk his life in the Triwizard Tournament. She said unlike James she actually loved Harry and wished she could have protected him. That definitely was the sort of parent Harry wanted!

And that was exactly what Harry told Professor Dumbledore when the headmaster brought up the topic of meetings with parents at the beginning of their first private lesson that Saturday.

"Your father can appear very harsh," the headmaster said. "But he has a good heart and only wants the best for the entire wizarding world. Do at least give him the chance to prove that in a personal meeting. It doesn't have to put you under any obligations to him."

"He refuses to let me give the same chance to my mother if I do," Harry pointed out. "And her letter is much nicer."

He did feel bad about disappointing Draco, though. Draco kept telling him what a great man Auror Potter was and how much he wanted him to be his father.

"How about a little bargain then," Professor Dumbledore suggested. "I will undertake to convince Auror Potter to withdraw that condition and you promise to see him if I succeed. I'm sure he will understand the wish to know both one's parents and respect it once I get him to see it from that perspective."

"Can Draco come along when we meet?" Harry asked a little nervously. "And will it be in a public place? I don't want to be all alone with Auror Potter."

"It is customary to do it in a pub or restaurant," the headmaster said, but he didn't look pleased. "I could suggest the Three Broomsticks as a place you are familiar with and can reach easily since you cannot apparate yet. Anything more would be an insult however and you must remember that even at sixteen you are still a child and he is an Auror, one of the most trusted people in our society."

Harry sighed and wondered whether he had already agreed to the bargain or could still withdraw his agreement.

Professor Dumbledore gave him no chance, though, as he plunged straight into a rather frightening lesson on You-Know-Who's family and origin.


	11. Chapter 11: Hermione's Helping Hand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Harry has his first family meeting.

Chapter 11: Hermione's Helping Hand

 

It took Harry a few days to discover that perhaps the book he had been given in their first Potions lesson had been a better price than the Felix Felicis after all. Sure, Hermione would have one perfect day whenever she chose to use the potion, but she couldn't use it for anything important. Harry on the other hand had a year's worth of brewing tips scrawled into his Potions book that made him the best Potions student in the school.

At first he only considered the handwritten comments on the pages distracting obstacles to reading the text, but after a few times when he'd found himself unable to do exactly as the book said and resorted to the alternative instructions he realised that they made brewing much easier and started to get better results than even Hermione!

It made him curious who the student who had written them had been, but instead of a name he had merely written "Half-Blood Prince" into the book. As far as he could find out there never had been any Royals at Hogwarts institute.

Despite that minor disappointment it could have been a quite pleasant year now that Professor Umbridge had left, if there hadn't been two things to mar it: the news and Quidditch try-outs.

The Daily Prophet told of attacks and arrests every day now and one day the headmaster even came into the glasshouse they were working in during a Herbology lesson and took Hannah out. The rumour mill said that her mother had been killed, but Harry couldn't find Hannah to get confirmation of the story. Apparently she'd left the institute.

There were no news of Professor Hagrid being put on trial, but he also didn't return to the institute and Professor Grubbly-Plank became a familiar sight at the head table during meals.

Harry retreated to the library when Katie held the try-outs for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, but he still had to put up with Ron's excited reports of how he had won the keeper position for another year afterwards. The pain over the loss of his broom was becoming more bearable, though, and then Harry received a message to distract him and take him away from Ron for an evening: He was to meet his father.

Despite the relief of getting away from all the Quidditch talk that came as a bit of a shock as he had expected that he would get to meet his mother first. At least his father had accepted the suggestion of the three Broomsticks as their meeting place, though. Draco however would not be with them.

Thus Harry walked down to the pub alone that evening, wand clutched in one pocket and invisibility cloak hidden in the other in case the Death Eaters were waiting for him on the way.

"Well, you haven't grown any more impressive-looking," Auror Potter said appraising Harry from head to toe. "But I suppose that can't be helped and an Auror doesn't have to be strong and heavy if he is fast with his wand and clever. Your Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL shows some promise at least."

"I don't want to be an Auror," Harry pointed out. "I'm aiming for a career as a medical brewer. That seems much more productive to me."

But Auror Potter frowned and shook his head.

"Utter childish nonsense. You were born to be an Auror. It is in your blood and then there is the prophecy that marks you as the vanquisher of You-Know-Who. We will just have to ask Albus to add Charms to your NEWT schedule. He is a old friend and it is still early enough in the year for you to catch up if you just put in a little real work. You will have to study more of course. Your grades are far below what mine were at your age so clearly you will do much better if you put in a little effort. I hardly ever did and still was top of almost all my classes."

"I don't ..." Harry started to explain again, but his father gave him no chance to finish the sentence. He started to reminisce about his school days and the pranks he and his friends had played and for a little while Harry even started to enjoy the meeting as he listened breathlessly to all the things his Uncle Sirius had done that he had never heard of before. But then his father returned to the here and now and pointed out that Harry lacked Uncle Sirius' spirit of adventure.

"I would have expected you to at least choose the Hogshead over the boring old Three Broomsticks," he declared.

"But it's supposed to be full of suspect characters," Harry finally managed to get in a reply. "There might be Death E..."

"Don't you see that that is the very thing that makes it fun?"

No, Harry didn't. Meeting Death Eaters in the Ministry hadn't been the least bit fun, nor had being locked in with Barty Crouch Junior. Harry returned to the institute more determined than ever not to have anything to do with his father.


	12. Chapter 12: Silver and Opals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Hm ... now how to do this without Hagrid?

Chapter 12: Silver and Opals

 

Harry hoped that the invitation to meet his mother would follow soon now and got excited every time he received a message, but they always turned out to be invitations to Professor Slughorn's rather dull club meetings. Harry might have stopped attending them at all if it hadn't been for Hermione who had been drafted into it as well and considered it impolite to refuse.

"And it might indeed be useful to have these connections someday," she reminded Harry every time and so he went along grudgingly.

Thanks to the Half-Blood Prince Professor Slughorn was now more fond of Harry than ever and Harry discovered another downside of his Potions book when he tried out a spell he found scribbled in there and accidentally hung Ron upside down.

Luckily his friend had forgiven him by the time of the first Hogsmeade weekend and they got to enjoy their first official trip into the village without adult supervision together.

Well, enjoy wasn't quite the word. Ron was still a little cross because he hadn't been invited to join the Slug Club, Zonko's had closed down and it was bitterly cold outside.

After warming themselves with some butterbeer and buying some sweets at Honeydukes Harry, Ron, Hermione, Draco, Vincent and Gregory decided to return to the institute early in the hopes of reserving places by the fireside before the general rush set in.

It appeared that they weren't the only ones who'd had that idea, though. Not far ahead of them Gryffindor Quiddich captain Katie and her friend Leanne were heading in the same direction ... until there was a scream and Katie rose into the air.

Harry and his friends rushed towards her to help and learned from the sobbing Leanne that Katie had touched something that had been inside a very suspicious package.

"I don't know where she got it," the girl sobbed. "She went to the bathroom and came back with it. She said it was for somebody at Hogwarts and she just had to deliver it, but she wouldn't let me see what it was so I tried to pull it out of her grip and it tore and ... and ... that happened!"

Ron as the fastest runner among them ran ahead to the institute and brought back the first adult he could find.

Unfortunately that was Mr. Filch, who as a squib and could do no more than hoist Katie into his arms and carry her back to the castle stumbling under the weight of the almost adult girl.

Hermione had the presence of mind to look for the item that had been in the parcel. It turned out to be a strangely glowing necklace.

"It must be cursed," she declared. "We have to take it back to the institute so Madam Pomfrey can examine it. If she can recognise the curse, she'll be able to treat Katie better."

"And if we leave it here somebody else will find it and pick it up and be cursed as well," Harry realised.

So they very carefully wrapped it in a shawl and carried it to the castle where Professor McGonagall took charge of it and asked them to describe exactly what they had seen happen to Katie.

"It must have been the Death Eaters," Draco added to the end of his report. "There was at least one in the back of the Three Broomsticks."

The others stared at him in surprise.

"How do you know that?" Professor McGonagall demanded.

"He addressed me when I went to the bathroom," Draco explained. "He claimed that he was my uncle Rudolphus and that 'the Dark Lord' would free my father for me if I did him a little favour. Dark Lord is what the Death Eaters call You-Know-Who, isn't it?"

Professor McGonagall nodded.

"And did he tell you what that favour was?" she asked.

"I didn't ask," Draco admitted. "I slammed the door shut in his face and ran back into the public room. I thought he wouldn't dare anything there with Madam Rosmerta and the Professors supervising the younger students around to protect me."

"But you never told us!" Harry exclaimed horrified.

"I was so scared," Draco admitted. "And I thought the best thing to do was report it to Professor Snape once we were back at the institute."

The next morning the students were warned that Death Eaters were trying to recruit children and never to go anywhere alone when off the institute grounds, not even the bathroom. Soon the whole institute was talking about how the Death Eaters had crucioed Katie, because she had refused to join them.


	13. Chapter 13: The Secret Riddle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: A not particularly pleasant private lesson with Albus Dumbledore.

Chapter 13: The Secret Riddle

 

The next day they learned that Katie had been sent to St. Mungo's and Demelza was announced as the new Gryffindor Quiddich team captain. Harry was a little concerned that she hadn't been on the team long enough, but when Ron asked him whom he would have chosen instead he couldn't come up with a more experienced alternative either. How the team had changed since back in first year when Harry had joined it!

His next lesson with Professor Dumbledore soon drove all thoughts of Katie and the Quidditch team out of Harry's mind, though.

"So when do I get to meet my mother?" was the first thing out of Harry's mouth after the due greetings had been exchanged.

"All in due time," the headmaster said calmly. Well, of course it wasn't his first meeting with his mother they were speaking of. "All in due time."

"It didn't take this long for any of my friends to meet theirs."

"Ah, but for them the circumstances were different," Professor Dumbledore assured him. "It is much easier to arrange a visit with married parents, or an only surviving parent. Having to arrange two separate visits is twice the work, but I assure you the Ministry is working on it and you already got one meeting. How do you like your father now that you have met him?"

Harry looked at Professor Dumbledore wondering how to express this politely. The headmaster was smiling and twinkling at him quite complacently.

"No better than before," Harry said honestly, but hopefully not insultingly. "He said that he would talk to you about adding Charms to my schedule so I can become an Auror."

"Ah, have you changed your mind about your career choice then? Quite excellent. Auror shall suit you perfectly, I believe."

"No, I have not!" Harry said a little more vehemently than would have been polite. "It's the last thing I want to be. I hate Aurors!"

"Then why did your father promise to talk to me and why are you asking me to change your schedule?" the headmaster asked in a mildly surprised tone.

"He didn't promise, he just told me and wouldn't listen to me. And I am not asking you to change my schedule, I'm asking you to leave it as it is. And if you change it anyway, I simply wonâ€™t go to the lessons. I want to be a medical brewer, not an Auror."

"You do realise that such a change of schedule is a most unusual thing and not done easily. It is a very big favour that we are offering you and to refuse when somebody goes that far out of his way to do something for you is quite rude, Harry," the headmaster informed him.

"But he isn't doing this for me, he is doing it against me! It isn't a favour it's a ... a ... a punishment when I've done nothing to be punished for."

"Now be reasonable, Harry. Adding Charms to your schedule doesn't prevent you from becoming a medical brewer. You'll still have all the subjects you'll need for that. Granted, it will be a little more work, but you have no extracurricular activities to take up your time since you are no longer on the Quidditch team and in return you get the additional career option of Auror if you should change your mind. Do at least consider it."

"I don't want to be an Auror," Harry ground out between clenched teeth. "Auror Potter is an Auror and I don't want to be like him!"

"Auror Black was an Auror as well," the headmaster pointed out.

"And it got him killed," Harry added. "I don't want to be an Auror. Why won't anybody accept that?"

Dumbledore sighed.

"Very well, Harry. Let us not talk of this anymore, but consider it and do come to me if you change your mind at any point. Just remember that the sooner you do so the easier it will be since you are missing Charms lessons every week."

Then they returned to the subject of You-Know-Who's origin and Harry got to see a memory of a conversation with a shopkeeper who had bought Slytherin's locket and then the headmaster's own memory of his first meeting with Tom Riddle.

It was a bit of a shock to meet Tom again after the incident with his diary in Harry's second year. This Tom was a lot smaller and younger than the one Harry remembered, of course, but it was still the same boy that Harry had once talked to and that had abducted Ginevra and had wanted to kill her, the same boy that was now You-Know-Who.

And that boy had already shown that he was malicious and a thief back then. Yet Professor Dumbledore had still invited him to Hogwarts just like any other boy!

All in all this wasn't a particularly enjoyable lesson.


	14. Chapter 14: Felix Felicis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Harry has more important things than Quidditch on his mind.

Chapter 14: Felix Felicis

 

"It didn't take them this long to arrange your meeting with your mother, did it?" Harry asked Draco the next day.

Draco blinked at him in incomprehension for a moment. He'd been talking about Quidditch which seemed to be the only thing on everybody's minds these days as the match between Slytherin and Gryffindor was approaching.

"The first meeting with your mother," Harry repeated. "It didn't take them as long to arrange it as it is taking mine, did it?"

Draco blinked again.

"When was yours?" he asked then. "I can't remember it right now."

"It hasn't happened yet."

"Oh," Draco said. "No, it didn't take this long. When is it going to be then?"

"I don't know," Harry admitted. "I asked the headmaster yesterday and he said to be patient and that it takes time to arrange. He said that I did get to meet my father already, but ... well, I only met him because he makes us brothers. I didn't want to. I want to meet my mother."

"But you did ask to meet him," Ron pointed out. "Draco asked only for his mother. He got only one visit, just like you."

"So you think they won't let me meet her because I agreed to see my father as well? They are lying to me again?" Harry demanded.

"Now Harry, that is a really big accusation and they are adults and teachers," Vincent intervened a little nervously.

"Yes, but they did lie when they let me believe my parents were dead and in my birthday letter my father said he'd only meet me if I did not meet my mother. The headmaster told me he'd talked to him and that he had agreed to take it back, but what if they actually agreed that he'd tell me he'd arrange the meeting with my mother and simply not do it?"

"But your mother said she wanted to meet you," Ron reminded him. "So why would the headmaster put your father's wish over your mother's?"

"I don't know," Harry admitted. "But there is something else as well. Remember last year when I had to have remedial Potions lessons with Professor Snape?"

"Yes of course, but those weren't real, after all," Hermione said right away. "They were only so Professor Umbridge wouldn't find out that you were really learning to defend yourself against You-Know-Who."

"Yes, but when Professor McGonagall called me into her office to tell me about it she said it would be because I wanted to become an Auror. I told her I didn't. I want to be a medical brewer. And then she said that was fine and we agreed it at career counselling as well and she assigned me the NEWT subjects for it this year."

"Well, of course she did," Hermione said a little impatiently. "That's what career counselling is for."

"Yes, but she asked me whether I hadn't changed my mind and wanted to be an Auror instead and I had to tell her once again that I hate the idea and she didn't want to believe it. And then when I met my father he said he'd make the headmaster change my subjects to make me become an Auror, because as his son I have to be one. And when I told the headmaster about it so he'd know that I didn't want it he was all eager and kept telling me to think about it and that he'd do it as soon as I tell him I'd changed my mind and not to take too long ... And well, I don't know, but it doesn't seem right. It feels like ... like he wants to please my father for some reason."

"That really is suspicious, if everything actually is as you see it and there wasn't just some misunderstanding somewhere," Hermione said.

"The headmaster is a politician first," Draco remarked. "And politics is a dirty game full of lies and deceit, Professor Snape says. You have to be very careful in it and trust nobody."

"And you are politically relevant because you defeated You-Know-Who," Hermione agreed. "But I still can't believe they'd lie to you about contacting your mother for the meeting. That makes no sense."

"And making me become an Auror does?" Harry asked a little angrily.

"Well, yes," Hermione said. "Aurors fight You-Know-Who, don't they? Of course they'd like you to do that. It'd set an example for others to do the same."

"Why don't you owl your mother yourself and ask her about the meeting?" Draco suggested. "You have an owl so just sit down and write her a letter saying that you are impatient to meet her but it is taking so long that you're worried there has been a mistake. Has she heard anything about it? Pretend that you suspect an owl might have gotten lost or something. It must have been an accident or at the very worst a mistake. That way you can't get in trouble for accusing an adult of anything."

So that evening Harry sat down and crafted a very carefully worded letter in which he apologised for being such an impatient child, but explained his eagerness to meet his mother and why he had agreed to meeting his father as well, but never had meant that he wanted to meet him first.

Hermione double checked it suggested some changes and then gave it to Ron who took it to the owlery together with a letter to his own mother and sent it off. They hoped that if Harry wasn't even seen visiting the owlery nobody would suspect that he'd sent a letter and so Hedwig would not be intercepted.

Luckily Lily Evans Prewett's reply arrived on the day of the Quidditch game and in all the excitement not even Ron noticed that Harry had received an owl. Only Hermione saw him pocket the letter and gave him a wink before she renewed her efforts to reassure Ron.

Unfortunately Harry had to agree with Ron's own assessment that Ron had been dreadful in the last few practises and the team now burdened with a last minute replacement chaser as well as an unreliable keeper and bad beaters had little hope of winning.

Slytherin, too, had to play with a replacement chaser, though and Ginevra managed to snatch the snitch just a moment before Draco reached it resulting in a very narrow victory for Gryffindor.

"We won!" Ron triumphed as he landed.

"No thanks to you, though," Demelza snapped at him. "It's all due to Ginevra getting the snitch before you could bungle another catch. One more quaffle through those hoops and we'd have had no hope left."

On the way back to Gryffindor tower Ron told Harry that he was going to resign his spot on the team, but the wild party in the commonroom didn't give him a chance to speak with the captain in private and by the time Harry had extracted himself from a very drunk girl called Romilda and was able to look around for his friends again Ron was apparently perfectly happy kissing Lavender and Hermione nowhere to be found.

Thus Harry returned to the dorm by himself and read his mother's letter. Lily it turned out had heard nothing at all from anyone and was quite convinced that it was all James' doing.

'He probably used his influence as an Auror to intercept Albus' owl. It is just the sort of thing that bastard would do. Do not trust him, Harry! He doesn't care about your well-being at all. The only thing James Potter has ever cared about is himself.'

She said that she had written an owl to the headmaster as well, but suggested to speed matters up by meeting at Madam Puddyfoots on the next Hogsmeade weekend if only Harry could give her the date.

'It is a nice quiet place, but public enough that we should feel safe from any attempts by Potter or Death Eaters. Do be careful and always stay close to a Professor on your way there, though. I know that you are a big boy and know the way well by now, but there are worse dangers than getting lost these days.'


	15. Chapter 15: The Unbreakable Vow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Things aren't going too well between Harry's friends.

Chapter 15: The Unbreakable Vow

 

His new relationship with Lavender had seemed to have given Ron confidence and his Quidditch improved, at least in the practices. It remained to be seen how he would do in a real game.

And then there was Hermione's reaction. Apparently she had been expecting Ron to ask her out and now felt betrayed!

She now refused to talk to or even sit at the same table as Ron. Not that Harry could blame her for not wanting to be around when the couple was together. Those two were always so busy kissing that they didn't see or hear anything around them and Harry felt quite bored and superfluous whenever he was with them and began to worry that he had lost his best friend forever. Of course he had already begun to suspect that he was going to lose all his friends after they graduated, but he'd thought he'd still have this and the next year with them at least.

So Harry spent a lot more time with Hermione and their Slytherin friends as Christmas approached.

Professor Slughorn organised a Christmas party for the Slug Club and told them all to bring guests. At first this seemed harmless enough to Harry and he assumed that he and Hermione would go together, but to his surprise she suddenly announced that she was going with Cormack of all people and Harry found himself ambushed by girls he hardly knew wherever he went.

"Don't accept anything they give you," Hermione warned him. "Some of them are brewing love potions."

So when Romilda forced a box of chocolates on him, Harry carried them upstairs and threw them into his cupboard determined to throw them away as soon as he got the chance to do it safely.

"Just ask one of them to the party already," Draco recommended a little grumpily. "Then the others will have to give up."

He himself was not invited at all. For some reason even though he had been a Slytherin himself, Professor Slughorn never paid him any attention at all. Still, he seemed more than usually disinterested now.

"What is the matter with you?" Harry demanded when it once again turned out that he hadn't been listening to what Vincent had been telling them.

Draco glanced around nervously and then lowered his voice to a whisper.

"I got an owl," he admitted. "From my Death Eater aunt. She wants me to do some 'tiny little favour' to the 'Dark Lord' and promises that he will reward me by freeing my father from Azkaban."

"But why would you want that?" Gregory asked sounding even more confused than Harry felt.

"I don't know," Draco said. "She just seems to assume that I do."

"What did Professor Snape say about it?" Harry asked.

"I haven't asked him," Draco replied staring down at the table.

"But you have reported that owl, haven't you? You've let him read the letter?"

Draco shook his head miserably.

"I don't dare. I ... I'm not sure that I should. Do I have the right to betray her? And ... well, she writes like she knows I'm on their side as well. Maybe she's just imagining things. She did seem pretty mad in the Ministry, didn't she?"

In the Ministry? Mad? Harry gasped.

"You mean her? That creature is your aunt?"

Draco nodded miserably.

"You have to report her!" Harry urged. "She's a monster. She has to go back to Azkaban!"

"But I'm not even sure I can trust Professor Snape anymore," Draco exclaimed. "And anyway, reporting her owl won't put her back in Azkaban. She'd already be there if they knew where to find her."

"Then report her to the headmaster," Vincent said.

"Yes, do!" Harry exclaimed delighted with the easy solution. "It doesn't matter whether you have the right or not if it won't help them catch her anyway."

"And you can betray an adult if he's endangering the institute. We were right to report Professor Hagrid, weren't we?" Hermione finally spoke up as well.

"And what became of him?" Draco asked her. "Where is he? Why hasn't he come back yet? What happens if they come and take Professor Snape as well? After all he's done for us? Whom else do we Slytherins have to protect us? Don't we owe him our loyalty?"

That thought silenced Harry as well. Professor Snape was the best fighter the institute had, except perhaps Professor Dumbledore. He had saved Harry himself several times over the years even though Harry wasn't a Slytherin.

"Please don't tell," Draco pleaded. "I wish I'd never said anything at all."

Harry, Vincent and Gregory promised it right away, but Hermione shook her head.

"If you don't go and tell a teacher right away," she threatened. "I will."

Draco pleaded, begged and cried, but in the next break Hermione went to Professor McGonagall and shortly after that Draco was called to the headmaster's office and they saw no more of him until dinner where he appeared looking even more miserable and hardly ate anything.

After that Draco remained very quiet and refused to talk to Hermione making Harry's attempts to hold on to his friends even more difficult.

He eventually asked Luna to the party as a sort of thank you for her help at the Ministry of Magic. Peeves the poltergeist announced it to the whole school as a love affair, though.


	16. Chapter 16: A Very Frosty Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: The Hogsmeade visit before Christmas doesn't go as planned.

Chapter 16: A Very Frosty Christmas

 

No Aurors came to arrest Professor Snape so Harry thought that everything was fine, but Draco still wouldn't talk with Hermione and Ron still spent all his spare time kissing Lavender by the time Christmas came around.

Harry had some hope that he would be able to meet his mother on the Hogsmeade weekend they always got to do their Christmas shopping and had indeed arranged it all with her when two days before the event Draco ran up to him when he arrived for dinner.

"Guess what!" the Slytherin exclaimed excitedly.

"What?" Harry asked obligingly.

"We're having a family meeting in the Hogshead on the Hogsmeade day! A real family Christmas!"

"We?" Harry asked suspecting mischief.

"Why, you, me, my Mum and our Dad, of course!" Draco explained as if he thought Harry was being particularly slow.

"Oh, but I was going to meet my Mum at Madam Puddyfoots," Harry explained disappointedly.

"So? Just postpone it to the next weekend," Draco urged. "Come on, you can meet your mother anytime. This is our first chance to have a family meeting together!"

Harry gave in, not because he really wanted to be at the Potter family Christmas meeting, but because he feared that if he told Draco that he wasn't going Draco would tell his father why and then Auror Potter would find a way to prevent him meeting his mother entirely.

So that evening he wrote an apologetic owl to her explaining the emergency and expressing his hope that things would go better the next Hogsmeade weekend.

His mother returned an equally regretful reply agreeing that the risk of being found out and prevented was too high under the circumstances, but also expressing concerns that Auror Potter was already suspecting them and would always block the Hogsmeade weekends from now on.

Harry could only hope that that wasn't true as he trudged along to the Hogshead obligingly and miserably.

James Potter greeted them with every sign of joy and even hugged Draco before starting to tell them stories about his heroic adventures as an Auror. Harry thought it all sounded very self-glorifying and dangerous besides. It reminded him of the way Ron exaggerated his saves after a successful match, though, so perhaps it wasn't all strictly true. Harry certainly hoped so when he noticed with what glowing eyes Draco was listening to the tales.

Would the headmaster allow Draco to change his NEWT subjects to those required to become an Auror, if he asked? Harry wasn't sure, but suspected that Auror Potter might be talked into backing the request and that the headmaster would give in if he did had already been proven, hadn't it?

Or was it just that Harry was 'the chosen one' as the Daily Prophet liked to call him these days?

He didn't get the time to think it through as very soon a stranger approached their table apparently surprised and delighted to meet the Potters there.

Auror Potter and his wife too acted so surprised and delighted and deferential that Draco leant over to warn Harry that this must be someone really important.

"Oh Minister," said Auror Potter after they had finished their explanations of how they had all happened to coincidentally be in the same pub at the same time. "Have you met my boys? These are Draco and my little Harry. Boys, this is Mr. Scrimgour, the Minister of Magic."

"Ah indeed I have not, though I have long had the wish to meet such courageous boys," the Minister claimed, though Harry suddenly thought that he did remember seeing him in the Ministry of Magic just before Professor Dumbledore had given him the portkey that had returned him to Hogwarts institute. "And not quite that little anymore either, eh?"

Somehow, Harry never could remember quite how afterwards, he ended up sitting a little separately from the family with the Minister and listening to Mr. Scrimgour explaining something about civil duties and how Harry was obliged to be seen going in and out of the Ministry.

"But I'm not old enough," he pointed out. "What will people think of Hogwarts institute if a student is seen going about in a grownup place? No, Minister, I couldn't possibly do that until after I've left the institute and I do not want to be an Auror at all. I want to be a medical brewer at St. Mungo's, not work at the Ministry. I want to make medicine to cure sick people."

"That ... er ... is a very admirable goal," the Minister agreed. "But you do realise that it is a very difficult and responsible job, don't you? Not everybody manages to get the required qualifications no matter how hard they try. If you were to fail ..."

"Oh I do know that of course and I have discussed it with my head of house in career advice. If I fail to become a medical brewer I might become a nurse or gardener. Then I might get to work with my friend Neville. He's going to be a herbologist."

For some reason the Minister didn't seem to like that idea much, but then Harry hadn't enjoyed their meeting all that much either. He decided to ask the headmaster about those civil duties in their next lesson. Perhaps there was a way to fulfil them without failing in his duties to the institute.


	17. Chapter 17: A Sluggish Memory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Harry get a tough homework assignment.

Chapter 17: A Sluggish Memory

 

There was no Muggle gift this year. Apparently the Dursleys had been told the truth about Harry's parents as well and no longer felt connected to him. It hurt worse than Harry could explain.

At least Harry wasn't the only one that had a disappointing Christmas, though. Ron hated the gift Lavender had gotten him. It was really embarrassing of course, but Harry wasn't quite sure that it really should have been a reason for them to break up.

He didn't miss Lavender, though and was glad that his two closest friends were talking to each other again.

Not long after Christmas a notice announcing apparition lessons for the sixth years appeared on the notice board. It quite excited Ron and Hermione, but Harry soon saw that while he could take the lessons he would not be old enough for the exam at the end of the course. That would have to wait for his seventh year. He even contemplated postponing the lessons as well, but then Hermione pointed out that the next year would be their NEWT year and he might not find the time for any extra courses.

"And if you do, you can do the course twice," she said. "Then you'll be twice as good at the exam."

So Harry signed up for the course anyway, but he just couldn't feel as excited about it as his year-mates.

Something he was eager to do however was talk to the headmaster about his meeting with the Minister and as luck would have it the first thing Professor Dumbledore asked about when Harry arrived in his office was the meeting with his father.

"I still don't like him," Harry reported. "I only went because Draco wanted me to and he is my friend. The Minister was there too, though."

"Rufus Scrimgour went to your family meeting?" the headmaster asked with a touch of anger in his voice.

"No, no, he just happened to be in the pub, too, and he came over to our table and Auror Potter introduced us," Harry explained hastily. "He did! I'm not lying!"

"Of course not," the headmaster assured him. "But it is a bit too much of a coincidence. The Minister asked to meet you not too long ago, you see, and I was forced to decline his request since you are not of age and he is not a relative. As Minister of Magic he does have access to your file, though, and can of course, look up what relatives you have agreed to have contact with. It would be easy enough for him to ask your father when and where the next meeting was to be."

"Auror Potter didnâ€™t know he was coming. He was very surprised. But Sir, he said I have a duty to be seen coming and going at the Ministry and well, don't I have a duty to the institute not to be seen off its grounds outside of Hogsmeade visits and supervised excursions?"

"Or meetings with your family," the headmaster said nodding. "You do not have any duty to keep Rufus Scrimgour in office or strengthen his political position, which is what he really wants, Harry. You could of course do so, if you feel it is a good idea. The man certainly is a better Minister in a time of war than Cornelius Fudge would be, but he is still a politician and there are many others out there. ... I ... ah, but you are no Slytherin. You might want to talk with one before you choose to ally yourself with a politician no matter of what stripe. It usually leads to being associated with a political party and the ideology that comes with that. That is never a step one should take lightly."

Harry waited slightly confused. He knew nothing about political parties and so far he'd only heard the word ideology in connection with You-Know-Who. He'd rather not have anything to do with that!

But Albus Dumbledore did not suggest any politicians Harry might choose to associate with. He merely switched to the topic of their lesson which was Tom Riddle's Hogwarts years even though the very first memory he showed Harry didn't take place in Hogwarts institute at all. It showed Tom's first and only meeting with Morfin Gaunt, which Harry didn't find nearly as interesting as what the headmaster told him had happened afterwards.

Tom Riddle jr. had murdered Tom Riddle sr. and framed Morfin Gaunt for it. Then he'd stolen the ring that was the only valuable possession of the Gaunts and left his uncle to die in Azkaban.

The next memory was a little more interesting. It showed what looked suspiciously like a Slug Club meeting, though Harry recognised neither the furniture nor the long ago club members ... except for Tom of course. And then there was the strange fog that filled the room at two times.

"The fog shows that the memory has been tampered with," Professor Dumbledore explained. "Poor Professor Slughorn is so ashamed of whatever information Tom Riddle tricked him into revealing that he has made up different words to cover it up. He has not succeeded at fooling himself, though, or else the memory would be smoother. He still has the correct memory buried underneath, but he is too ashamed to give it to me. It will be your task to convince him to give us the correct memory. That is very important. Do not fail!"

It was the most difficult thing anyone had ever ordered Harry to do. He had no idea how to go about convincing Professor Slughorn and if he did it the wrong way he might achieve the very opposite. That would be failing, wouldn't it? And he had been ordered not to fail.

But not trying would be failing as well. At least not answering a question in an exam was the same as getting it wrong.

Harry had never really been afraid of failing an exam before, not even the OWLs once he'd figured out that he wanted to become a gardener if he did fail them. But he'd also never been ordered not to fail before. What should he do?


	18. Chapter 18: Birthday Surprises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Nothing but trouble with potions in this one.

Chapter 18: Birthday Surprises

 

Ron didn't see why Harry was worried about his homework for the headmaster at all.

"So you just walk up to Professor Slughorn after the next Potions lesson and tell him you have to get the real memory for Professor Dumbledore. The Professors have to help us with our homework. They are teachers," he said.

But Hermione shook her head sadly.

"If he is too ashamed to have given Dumbledore the real memory in the first place he won't just change his mind because it's Harry asking him. He'll still be too ashamed to do it," she declared.

"You have to trick him into doing it," Gregory said, but neither he nor Vincent could think of a good trick for it and Draco who was much better at it than any of the others wasn't around because Hermione was with them and he still wanted nothing to do with her.

"Maybe if he's really pleased with my potion," Harry suggested hopefully. "He'll be willing to do me a special favour."

But luck was against him from the start in their next Potions lesson. They were supposed to brew antidotes and even the Half-Blood Prince couldn't explain those to Harry ... or well, he probably could have if he'd been there in person and Harry had asked him, but he hadn't made any useful notes in his Potions book which was all Harry had to help him.

In the end his result was no worse than Ron's, Harry thought, but it was still only Harry that Professor Slughorn asked to stay after when he dismissed the class.

"I'm sorry," Harry said grasping for the first excuse he could come up with. "I didn't pay enough attention."

Professor Slughorn nodded wisely.

"First love?" he suggested with a wink. "You and Hermione ..."

"Oh no!" Harry exclaimed hastily. "She wouldn't. I mean, she loves somebody else. She wouldn't want any such rumours going around the institute and I really don't ..."

"But there is something on your mind that is distracting you," Professor Slughorn claimed. "I can tell, you know."

"Yes, well ..." Perhaps this was his chance after all. "You know that You-Know-Who is after me, don't you? And perhaps also that Professor Dumbledore is giving me special lessons to prepare me to defend myself? You gave him a memory of the young You-Know-Who when he was your student."

"Ah yes," Professor Slughorn said in a very strange tone. "That."

"Yes, that," Harry agreed. "Professor Dumbledore showed me that memory and he said there's something wrong with it. Something you've been trying to forget. He told me to get him the real memory for homework and ... well ..."

"No!" exclaimed Professor Slughorn in a strange echo of Harry's earlier protest. "That's all there is. All I remember. If there was more to the memory I have forgotten it. He was just one of many students in those days, many many years ago and I am a very old man. My memory just isn't what it used to be. I'm sorry if I've forgotten something important, and well, horcruxes, you know. That just isn't a topic a decent wizard likes to dwell upon and ... and well, that will be all I told the boy about them as well, even if I don't remember my exact words. It is all I'd tell you if you were to ask me about them. I'm sure Albus will understand that. He never was fond of the topic either."

Harry nodded defeatedly and hoped that the headmaster would accept that he had done his best. It probably was failing, though and he had forbidden Harry to fail ...

For some strange reason there were no more Slug Club meetings after this, but the apparition lessons kept the sixth year club members too distracted to notice it much. Apparating was a lot harder than they had imagined and by the time the next Hogsmeade visit rolled around they were still waiting for somebody to make the first successful jump without splinching.

Harry was very eager for the trip as he fondly expected to finally meet his mother, but two days before the date they were suddenly informed that it was cancelled.

Only when Ron complained that he had been looking forward to the trip as an extra birthday treat did Harry remember that the day was Ron's birthday as well. And he had no gift for him!

If the trip hadn't been cancelled he could have bought something on the day, but what was he to do now? He'd have to give Ron one of his own possessions, but what? It would have to look new and Ron must not recognise it as one of the gifts Harry had unpacked at Christmas ... Maybe something from last year would do?

Luckily when he dug through his cupboard Harry came across an unopened box of chocolate cauldrons. Where had he gotten those and why hadn't he eaten them?

Oh well, it didn't matter. It was good luck now. He wrapped them up nicely and presented them to Ron with the explanation that he'd meant to get him something additional on the Hogsmeade trip, but it had been cancelled unexpectedly ... "So I suppose it will have to wait."

Ron was quite happy to have the candy and ate several cauldrons right away, but then he suddenly got a very strange, dreamy look and started talking about Romilda of all people. Only then did Harry remember where he had gotten the chocolate cauldrons and why he hadn't opened them!

With some effort and trickery Harry managed to coax Ron into Professor Slughorn's office and to talk the Professor into brewing him an antidote, but he soon regretted it when the Professor's mead that he gave Ron in celebration turned out to contain an even worse poison.

Even Professor Slughorn himself didn't know what to do about it leaving Harry no other option than to run out into the corridor in quest for Madam Pomfrey yelling for help.

The latter, though awfully embarrassing turned out to be very lucky indeed, as the first person it brought to their aid was Professor Snape who as it turned out always carried a bezoar in his pocket, a habit he had acquired in his days as Potions professor when there always had been a risk that a student might taste a mis-brewed potion which might not leave the professor enough time to analyse it and brew an antidote.

Ron was not happy to spend his birthday in the hospital wing, but at least he was still alive. It was rather frightening that somebody had poisoned Professor Slughorn's mead, though. Why would anyone want to murder their Potions professor?


	19. Chapter 19: Elf Tails

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Harry finally meets his mother.

Chapter 19: Elf Tails

 

The Gryffindor Quidditch team members were not at all happy to hear that Ron had to spend the next week in the hospital wing either. They had an important game coming up and were still playing with Dean standing in for Katie. Now they had to replace Ron as well and the only possible replacement was Cormack who was soon strutting about the institute as if he owned it.

"He is absolutely unbearable," Dean complained to his year-mates in the safety of the dorm - because Cormack was a very tall and athletically built boy. "He's acting like he's the captain, telling us all what to do and not listening to Demelza at all. He thinks he knows how to play better than the experienced team members. Honestly, it's not just me. He's always giving tips to everybody, even though he's never played in a real game."

Harry didn't care all that much. He just wished that he himself could play again, but since that was not to be he decided to cheer himself up with another really special treat: He would finally meet his mother that Sunday.

Lily Evans Prewett had initially not been happy to learn that Harry had his father's old invisibility cloak and knew a secret tunnel into Hogsmeade, but when Harry assured her that normally he would never use it and hadn't since the year in which he had first discovered it and she realised that there was no other way for them to meet since Hogsmeade visits had been cancelled for the entire duration of the war, she agreed. However she insisted on meeting him inside Honeydukes rather than at Madam Puddyfoot's as had been the original plan.

The prospect of finally meeting an actually desirable relative kept Harry cheerful even when he went to watch the Quidditch match.

His being there to cheer it on didnâ€™t help the Gryffindor team any, though. Cormack really was a disaster, flying all over the pitch instead of guarding the hoops, beating his team-mates and distracting everybody from what they were supposed to be doing. At one point he even let the quaffle in because he was too busy tearing the bat out of the hands of a Gryffindor beater - from this distance and angle Harry wasn't sure which one it was. When Demelza flew over to intercede Cormack accidentally whacked her over the head knocking her out and sending her tumbling to the ground.

Luckily the headmaster was there to slow her fall with a quick, well practised spell and she was levitated to the hospital wing with nothing worse than a mild concussion and several ugly bruises.

Gryffindor had no more reserve chasers, though and even Ginny's spectacular catch of the snitch came too late to save the match. Hufflepuff won by a comfortable margin anyway.

At least Harry had the satisfaction of getting to tell Ron and Demelza how the remaining members had booted Cormack off the team in shame and ridicule despite the absence of their team captain and vice captain.

And then came the Sunday and the secret trip into Honeydukes. It had been easier to do this back when he'd still had his magical map of the institute, Harry had to realise as he only barely managed to close the statue in time as Professor Flittwick passed by unexpectedly.

It also had been easier to get out of the basement when there had been employees coming down every few minutes to replenish the stock that the Hogwarts students had purchased.

This time Harry found the basement dark and empty and the door to the stairs closed. It took him a little while just to figure out where it was and feel his way upstairs in the dark since lighting his wand would have given away his presence if there had been anyone to see it.

When he reached the shop however there was daylight, but it too was entirely empty and the door locked!

Only then did Harry realise his mistake. The shop was closed on non Hogsmeade weekend Sundays! He should never have scheduled his meeting on a Sunday!

It was a good thing that his mother had insisted on meeting him right there. She knew an unlocking charm that actually worked on the securely enspelled door and was able to let him out.

"I hope you don't mind a little change of plan," she told Harry once he was out in the street. "We think it is a bit too risky to be seen at Madam Puddyfoots after all. I know most people who'd see us would assume that it is just a normal scheduled family meeting, but you are very famous and you look so much like your father that you are likely to be recognised and if it gets into the Daily Prophet or even just the Quibbler you will be in a lot of trouble."

"But where else can we go?" Harry asked. "It will be no different in the Three Broomsticks or the Hogshead."

"Hogshead indeed!" Lily scoffed. "We are most certainly not going there. It is much too dangerous and unsavoury."

"Auror Potter met us there," Harry explained. "And the Minister was there, too."

He shouldn't have said it. He got quite an earful of what Lily Evans Prewett thought of irresponsible fathers who took children to places like that, Rufus Scrimgeour and the Ministry itself.

By the time she'd finished they had arrived at a Muggle hovercar apparently belonging to the man waiting inside, Claudius Prewett, Harry's stepfather.

"I suppose it will be best if you call me Claudius," he offered. "Here, put these on. Theyâ€™ll probably be a bit wide, but Lily can fix that with a bit of magic. We didn't know your size."

These were simple Muggle clothes that Harry supposed might pass for a Muggle institute uniform. It felt strange to be wearing trousers again, but it was also exciting and he quite liked the Muggle park they drove to to have a family picnic in.

At first he also liked Lily and Claudius a lot, but the more they talked the less they seemed to have in common. The only things Harry and Lily shared, it seemed, was an interest in Potions, though Lily much preferred Charms, and a dislike of Auror Potter, which would have provided a fine topic for conversation as far as Harry was concerned if Lily hadn't kept mentioning how unfortunate it was that Harry resembled his father so much.

Claudius was nice enough, but much more interested in Mafalda than in Harry. In fact, they were both disappointed when Harry explained that he had never even spoken to his half-sister.

"Well, she's a Hufflepuff first year," he tried to explain. "And I can't tell her she's my sister. It would look weird if I just went over to the Hufflepuff table and started talking to someone that much younger with no apparent reason."


	20. Chapter 20: Lord Voldemort's Request

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Now Harry has two impossible tasks to fulfil.

Chapter 20: Lord Voldemort's Request

 

"But I still like the Prewetts a lot better than Auror Potter," Harry explained to his friends when Ron was finally released from the hospital wing on Monday morning. "So I promised to find some excuse to get to know Mafalda and protect and guide her."

"So how are you going to do that?" Ron asked, but unfortunately Harry had no more an answer to that than to how he was going to get Professor Slughorn's real memory to complete his homework for Professor Dumbledore.

At least the cancelled Hogsmeade weekends and danger of being caught sneaking out of the institute gave him a good enough excuse to postpone the execution of his new task.

For the homework, however, he ran out of time that very week and had to suffer Professor Dumbledore's disappointment. So he once again promised to do his very best to convince Professor Slughorn even though he had no idea how and the headmaster finally relented and showed Harry the last two memories.

The first showed Tom Riddle as a young employee at a shop in Diagon Alley which the headmaster warned Harry was a very untrustworthy business. Tom wasn't in the shop in the memory, however. He'd been sent to negotiate a deal with an ugly and foolish old witch that was apparently living all on her own.

"Why isn't she at some institute for the elderly?" Harry asked the headmaster feeling quite confused. Surely if she had been none of this could have happened. The staff would never have left her alone with an untrustworthy young man that wasn't even a relative. Most likely they wouldnâ€™t have allowed him to see her in person at all! And they surely wouldn't have allowed her to show him such very precious possessions as Helga Hufflepuff's cup and Salazar Slytherin's locket. Nor would they have allowed a senile old house elf to serve her and put anything into her food or drink! "He couldn't have murdered her if she had been where she belonged."

"Do you think that that would have been a happy life for her?" the headmaster inquired instead of answering.

"Why wouldn't it?" What else could an old witch ask for than to be well guarded and cared for by expert staff?

"It was not what Hepzibah Smith chose in any case," the headmaster said. "She preferred the life in her old flat with all her familiar furniture and trinkets."

"And it got her killed!"

"So it did. But she died where she probably would have chosen to even if not so soon."

And then the headmaster simply moved on to the next memory, this one his own and set in the very same room they were in, though many years earlier.

Harry wasn't at all sure why the headmaster thought that he needed to see how You-Know-Who had applied for a job as Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts and been turned down. It did seem rather interesting that since then the institute had needed a new Professor for the subject every year, but it didn't actually give him any information on how to fight or hide from You-Know-Who.

And this was to be their last lesson unless Harry could get Professor Slughorn's memory! Suddenly Harry felt very lost and alone. He had to get that memory somehow, but he had no idea how to go about it.

Of course he could focus on getting to know Mafalda first, since he had to do that as well, but he had no idea how to go about that either.


	21. Chapter 21: The Unknowable Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Harry's Potions book is of little use in this and then he loses Hermione's paper.

Chapter 21: The Unknowable Room

 

The only thing Harry could think of doing about his two impossible tasks was to search his Potions book for anything that might possibly help.

The official text, unsurprisingly, held no recipes for being introduced to girls of any kind, not even if they were only one's little sister and one had no unseemly intentions towards them at all, nor did it mention any memory extraction potions.

Harry briefly considered trying to find the recipe for Veritaserum, but that only forced people to tell the truth not to hand over actual memories of it. It might make Professor Slughorn tell him what had actually happened the night Tom Riddle had asked him about Horcruxes, but that wasn't the task Professor Dumbledore had set him.

What he needed was something that worked like the imperious curse, but of course he couldn't use that, because it was an unforgivable. He was pretty sure Professor Dumbledore wouldnâ€™t forgive him if he even just attempted it.

The notes of the Halfblood Prince weren't any use either, even though Harry discovered several more interesting spells scribbled into the margins among them one called Sectumsempra that didn't even come with any explanation of what it did, but simply the note "for enemies".

Since Mafalda was supposed to become his friend and Professor Slughorn could hardly be called an enemy either no matter how hard he was trying to avoid being alone with Harry, Harry merely made a mental note of it and continued to search for something that could be applied to his current problems. Perhaps they'd duel in Defence Against the Dark Arts sometime and he could try the spell and see what it did then.

Another notice in the common room created quite a stir among Harry's classmates, but when Harry finally managed to squeeze through and read it for himself he was disappointed. It announced a trip to Hogsmeade for extra apparition practise for those students that would be taking their apparition test soon. Harry couldn't go since you had to be seventeen to take the test. He'd be missing out on a Hogsmeade trip once again.

He half hoped that Ron would decide to postpone his exam since he was the only one in their class that still hadn't apparated successfully even once, but Hermione soon talked their friend into going along for the extra practise.

"You can always withdraw your application for the exam after the last practise if you don't think you're ready," she declared and Ron nodded and handed in his application alongside her.

At least Draco wasn't old enough to go either and so Harry didn't have to spend the morning entirely alone.

They played chess in the great hall for a while and when they grew bored of that Harry appropriated the newspaper Hermione had forgotten on the Gryffindor table and they made fun of what articles they could.

Unfortunately there weren't all that many funny articles there these days. Most of them were about people having been murdered or arrested for attempted or even successful murders committed while under the imperious curse.

No, it definitely didn't sound like a good idea to use that on Professor Slughorn. Harry didn't like the paper's suggestions on what ought to be done to the perpetrators once they were caught at all.

A story about a thief pretending to be an inferus was rather funny, though. Or at least it was until Professor Flitwick overheard them laughing about it, confiscated their paper even though Harry told him it belonged to Hermione and explained just why the thief had done it and what a large role inferi had played in the last war.

"It is most certainly not funny that someone played with people's fears like that," he declared once again as he stalked off with Hermione's paper in hand.

Harry was quite worried what he would tell Hermione if she asked what had become of her paper, but luckily when they returned from Hogsmeade she was much too busy scolding Ron for his attempts to charm Madam Rosmerta to think of it at all.

When they came down for lunch and it wasn't on the table she probably assumed that she had left it elsewhere or the house elves had taken it away when tidying up before the meal.

Ron was delighted at having finally managed to apparate at all, though also slightly annoyed by his failure to make Madam Rosmerta laugh. All Harryâ€™s attempts to explain to him that even though he was now seventeen and thus an adult he still remained just a student and Madam Rosmerta was a grown up who had been productively running a business for many years proving her value to society were in vain. Of course such a woman wasn't interested in Ron, but Ron seemed to be convinced that since he had graciously bestowed his attention on a witch it was her duty to fall madly in love with him.

"I'm sure sheâ€™s had a lot of more handsome and accomplished wizards," Neville informed Ron a lot less tactfully, and Ron stalked off to sulk in some hidden corner.

Harry gave Neville a reprimanding look, but Neville just shrugged.

"Well, it is the truth, you know," he said.

For some reason the whole affair annoyed Hermione so much that Harry decided to leave it alone and change the topic to Potions homework.


	22. Chapter 22: After the Burial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Hermione finally has an idea that just might work to fix one of Harry's problems.

Chapter 22: After the Burial

 

By the time the day of the apparition exam came around Harry was still no closer to a solution to his impossible tasks, though Hermione reminded him that he would probably be alone with the Professor in his Potions class that day.

"Everybody else will be in Hogsmeade taking the exam," she declared. "And you can be sure they won't hurry back for the lesson when they know Professor Slughorn isn't going to teach anything new with so many people missing."

"Draco will be there," Harry reminded her. "And Neville. They're both too young to apparate as well."

"Well, Professor Slughorn will still be more inclined to chat than to teach," Hermione countered. "You know what he's like. And Draco already knows about your homework for Professor Dumbledore, doesn't he?"

Harry nodded. Of course he had told him.

"And I'm sure you can trust Neville with it as well," the girl continued. "He s your friend, too, isn't he?"

He was, though not that close, but Harry wasn't worried about him knowing what he needed from Professor Slughorn. It was more that ...

"I can't think of anything to say that I haven't tried, yet. He just doesn't want to give me that memory and I have no idea how to make him."

"Maybe you'll get lucky if you just repeat it all in the right moment," Ron suggested. "I'm counting on luck to get me through the exam." He still couldn't always apparate reliably. In about half of his attempts he reappeared in the wrong place. "Say, you couldn't lend me a tiny sip of your Felix Felicis, Hermione?" he begged. "Just a tiny drop right before my turn?"

"That's illegal, Ron!" Hermione scolded. "Don't you remember what Professor Slughorn said? You can't use it for exams or sports competitions, or ... " And then her eyes widened. "Oh, but there is nothing wrong with using it for an ordinary Potions lesson especially not one in which there will be nothing important done at all! Harry, we can ensure your luck with Professor Slughorn that way!"

And thus when Hermione and Ron left for their exam an hour later they left Harry with a carefully measured out dose of Felix Felicis, exactly enough for one Potions lesson.

Harry took it just before he left the common room to go to Potions and then ... he decided on a little detour through the Transfigurations corridor to take a rarely used smaller stairway down into the dungeons. He'd be a little late if he didn't hurry, but it felt like the right thing to do.

When he reached the Transfigurations corridor he soon realised that there was no hurrying through here. It was swarming with first years that might be hurt if he bowled them over in a collision. Strangely enough that didn't worry him a bit, though. He slowed to a walk and even kept that speed up when he reached the empty stairs.

At the time the lesson ought to start he'd only just reached the level of the kitchens. Only one more flight of stairs and then ... But what was this? It sounded like someone was sobbing. He had to check what was going on there. Felix Felicis told him that whoever it was needed help.

At that moment he had a faint moment of doubt whether the potion was indeed meant to make him lucky or to luckily ensure that he happened to be wherever somebody else needed some help, but either way he had taken the potion already and somebody needed his help. If he didn't show up in Potions today there was a good chance that Professor Slughorn wouldn't realise that he ought to be there when most of the class would be missing because of the apparition test.

He followed the sound down a corridor he'd never been in before and found none other than little Mafalda sitting on the floor clutching her ankle and sobbing desperately.

"Oh dear," he said rushing to her side. "What happened?"

"I tripped," she explained, her sobs subsiding a little when she realised she was no longer alone. "And ... and it hurts. I can't ... can't get up. And I should be in Transfigurations and nobody came when I called for help and Professor Mc... McGonagall will be so angry!"

"Why no, dear," Harry assured her. "She wont be at all angry when she hears that you were in the hospital wing. That excuses missing classes."

"But I'm not!"

"You will be as soon as we can get you there," Harry declared. "Do you think you can hop along on your good leg if you lean on me?"

It turned out that she could, though Harry did have to put a levitation charm on her and carry her when they reached the stairs as she was too exhausted to hop up them step by step and he hadn't learned how to conjure a stretcher and suspected that it was unsafe to levitate someone without one, especially when that someone was already hurt.

"It isn't so much that I didn't know being hurt is a perfectly good reason to miss classes," she confided as they passed the ground floor. "It's because I'm just awful at Transfigurations. I'm the only one in my class that still hasn't managed to transfigure anything so I just can't miss a lesson."

"You know what," Harry said. "I'll tutor you. Transfigurations might not be my speciality, but I'm sure I can manage to teach first year level."

She beamed at that and seemed perfectly happy again by the time he handed her over to Madam Pomfrey who assured them both that it was nothing worse than a sprain which was of course very painful, but could be cured in a matter of minutes if one had the right potion on hand.

Harry would have liked to stay and learn more about that potion, but Felix Felicis insisted that he had to get down to Potions even though he was very late by now.

This time he ran there on the shortest route and burst into the classroom out of breath.

"I'm so sorry, Professor Slughorn!" he shouted noticing with a quick glance that Ernie of Hufflepuff was present as well as his two expected friends. Felix Felicis however was convinced that that didn't matter. "I had to help poor little Mafalda of Hufflepuff, though. You know she's my ... a relative and I can't tell her yet, but my mother asked me to watch over her and just as I was coming down here for the lesson I found her sitting on the floor all alone with a broken ankle. I couldn't just leave her there! Not when my mother asked me to watch over her. I love my mother so much, you see, and Mafalda is so very like her ..."

"Of course, of course," the Professor agreed seeming very touched for some reason. "How could anyone not love Lily. You have your Potions talent from her, you know, and so does Mafalda."

He kept returning to the topic of Harry's mother and how much he had liked her all through the lesson, even long after Harry had set up his cauldron and started brewing the potion Felix Felicis prompted him to. It wasn't technically something funny and the fumes were so intoxicating that Harry had to wear a mask to protect himself, but the fact no longer mattered when Professor Slughorn bent over the cauldron to examine it and got a good dose of the fumes.

"Brilliant!" he slurred. "Jus' like your m ... mosher!"

"She worries so much over Mafalda and me, you know," Harry confided. "It's making her all sick that we are so far away where she can't protect us. I can protect Mafalda for her, of course, but ... well, nobody can protect me from You-Know-Who. All even Professor Dumbledore can do is to give me all the information he can find about him and without your memory he says it's all worthless. That's what's worrying my mother and making her look so terribly pale and sick ..."

He left the Potions classroom with the memory in a vial in his pocket and the reassuring certainty that Professor Slughorn and his classmates were so intoxicated that they would remember nothing of it by the time they recovered.

Draco and Neville would probably be very cross with him, though.


	23. Chapter 23: Horcruxes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Professor Dumbledore clearly is not Sherlock Holmes.

Chapter 23: Horcruxes

 

Harry wanted to report his success to the headmaster at dinner that evening, but to his disappointment Professor Dumbledore wasn't there and the report had to wait until breakfast the next morning.

The headmaster looked pleased when he accepted the vial, but said little and sent Harry on to his first class of the day very quickly.

"He didn't even say when my next special lesson is to be," Harry complained to Ron.

"Of course not," Hermione snapped. "He didn't want anybody to overhear that he is giving you special lessons. Or to wonder why you were talking to him at all for that matter. You shouldn't have done this at breakfast at all. You should have gone to his office - preferably when most people are in class."

Now she was telling him? But of course she'd had more important things on her mind the day before.

It had taken all Hermione's and Harry's efforts to get Ron back into a halfway cheerful mood after he'd failed his Apparition exam due to forgetting half an eyebrow at the departure point and in that endeavour Harry's triumph over Professor Slughorn had somehow fallen by the wayside.

Luckily the uncertainty didn't last long. A third year going out to Herbology class as Harry and Neville were returning from the greenhouses gave him a note inviting him to the headmaster's office that evening.

"Another Slug Club meeting?" Neville asked sounding more curious than angry even though he hadn't gotten one as well.

"No," Harry shook his head. "Just the headmaster wanting to see me."

"Just?" Neville echoed incredulously, but then caught himself. "Oh, I suppose you expected him to make another attempt to press you into seeing your father."

It was as good an excuse as any so Harry adopted a resigned expression and nodded.

"But, you know, it might also finally be the meeting with your mother you've been hoping for for so long," Neville suggested hopefully.

"Not very likely," Harry declared. "Auror Potter is using his influence at the ministry to prevent it. I'm writing to her, though."

"That's nice," Neville said a little enviously. "I wish I had some relative to write to, but as far as I can figure out who they were ... Well, the only Longbottoms that are married and of a likely age to be my parents have been tortured into insanity by Death Eaters on the run after You-Know-Who's fall. They were Aurors, too. If those are my parents the one that declined meeting me is my grandmother Augusta Longbottom. Her husband is dead and I can't figure out who my mother's parents might be so ... Well, I could try writing to Augusta's brother in law, Algernon, but that's such a distant relative ... I doubt he'd be at all interested."

"You could still try," Harry suggested. "Un ... Auror Black liked me to pretend that he was my uncle and I was only his friend's son no relative at all. He had no children, you see."

Neville brightened. "You're right. Algernon Longbottom is unmarried and has no children as far as I can tell. So there can't be any grandchildren either. Maybe he will like to hear from me. And perhaps he can tell me why my grandmother doesn't want me."

Professor Dumbledore seemed quite pleased that Harry asked for the memory right away when he arrived for the lesson.

"Ah, finally reconciled with the person of your father, I see," he said twinkling happily.

Harry stared at him. "What?"

"This is the first time you have come here without asking me about that meeting with your mother that I am afraid still hasn't been finally arranged," the headmaster explained. "This clearly proves that you are no longer dissatisfied with her lack of interest in the matter, the only possible reason for which is that you have found the parental love you crave in your father."

It was quite a surprise to Harry to realise that the headmaster was not all knowing.

"I have owled my mother myself, actually," Harry explained. "And she is not disinterested. The Ministry never contacted her at all. Most likely Auror Potter prevented it. We agreed to meet in Hogsmeade."

He decided not to reveal that he had snuck out of school for the meeting, though. Let the headmaster think that it was meant to take place as soon as Hogsmeade weekends started up again.

"And we are exchanging owls," he revealed instead. "So I don't need any help with that anymore."

The memory was now entirely free of fog, but at first didn't seem much more interesting. So Professor Slughorn had been deceived by Tom Riddle's pretence of being a good and diligent student and had had high hopes for his future.

Harry could see how the Professor would be ashamed of having been so very wrong, but why would Professor Dumbledore consider it important information? Surely Tom Riddle had fooled a lot of people.

The concept of horcruxes and how they were made came as quite a shock of course and Harry could have done without knowing that such things even existed, thank you very much, but he still didn't see the significance of it until Professor Dumbledore explained it. Then he felt even more shocked and overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task. A seven part soul and in order to survive Harry would have to track down and destroy every single part separately?

Even after Professor Dumbledore told him that two parts had already been destroyed it still seemed impossible to achieve.


	24. Chapter 24: Sectumsempra

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Of course Harry won't fight Draco, but does that mean he won't try out sectumsempra?

Chapter 24: Sectumsempra

 

Katie, the Gryffindor Quiddich team captain finally returned from St. Mungo's just in time to train her team for the very last game of the year.

Her first official action after hearing the reports of the events in her absence was to inform Cormack in no uncertain terms that he was not fit to play on a Quidditch team of any kind and never would be and that she'd rather play without a keeper than give him another chance.

Of course she didn't have to as Ron was completely recovered as well and eager to play.

In fact even Harry was looking forward to the game with excitement even though he was still forced to only watch and not participate. It was to be Gryffindor against Ravenclaw and therefore Ginevra against Cho as seekers.

If he was entirely honest with himself Harry wasn't sure whether he wanted Ginevra to win or lose, but it would definitely be an excellent match to watch.

Harry had always admired Cho even though he had beaten her in the past. She was an excellent player and very elegant in the air which made it a pleasure to watch her.

Her continued friendship with the treacherous Marietta annoyed Harry, though, and he really would have liked to see her taken down a notch in punishment.

Ginevra on the other hand was the seeker of his house team and as such deserved his support, but she had also taken Harry's own place on the team and Harry would have loved to see some proof that she wasn't actually better than him. A loss to Cho would certainly give him just that.

On the other hand while Ginevra had taken his place she hadn't stolen it from Harry and wasn't the reason he couldn't play anymore. That was Professor Umbridge's doing. Ginevra had only stepped into the empty place after Harry had been banned which had saved the team.

You simply couldn't play without a seeker, and since Harry wasn't allowed to play, somebody had had to do it. Somebody else could block a hoop by flying between it and the Quaffle, if you had no Keeper, but only the Seeker was allowed to catch the Snitch.

As usual before a Quidditch game tempers ran hot between the involved houses in the last week before the event.

In fact Harry didn't think he'd ever seen as many arguments between Ravenclaws and Gryffindors before in all his years at the institute.

Up until Wednesday evening however he judged that things still weren't as bad as they tended to get when the last game of the season was against Slytherin. The traditional rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin had often lead to outright fistfights in the corridors in the past, though Harry himself had never been involved in any of them.

Even when he had still been on the team himself his well known friendship with three Slytherins had led to him being classified as moderate to almost neutral in the house rivalry.

That hadn't saved him from taunts of course and had led to some accusations of being a house traitor from his house-mates, but when Slytherins had physically ambushed team members it had always been those considered outright haters of their house, usually Frederick and George, who had had a tendency to target Slytherins with their worst pranks.

That evening however Harry was on his way to dinner with his friends when he was alerted by shrieks and bangs coming from the direction of the entrance hall.

More curious than alarmed he, Ron, Hermione and Neville went to see what was happening.

At first he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw what was going on. A group of Ravenclaw third years had apparently ambushed the Gryffindor first year girls and were hexing them to their hearts' content.

The two Nathalies still known for their violent infighting were perched on a chandelier clinging to each other desperately, one sporting blue and silver hair and tears streaming down her face, the other naked and screaming at the top of her lungs.

Belinda, the best witch among the lot was dangling helplessly upside down in the air while the fourth member of the group braids undone and robes in tatters was flailing ineffectively to reach the wand of the boy who was floating her room-mate around while holding her off with his other hand at her throat. It didn't look like he was strangling her, though, since she obviously still had strength to fight, but he wasn't giving her any chance to get at his wand or even distract him enough to save her friend either.

"Stop that at once!" Ron roared with all his authority as a prefect, but only two of the Ravenclaws reacted at all and it wasn't by putting away their wands.

"Oh look, more stinking Gryffindors," one of them said.

"Or what?" the other asked. "You'll hex us? You wouldn't dare!"

"Don't!" Hermione exclaimed, but it was already too late.

Ron shot a stunning spell at the speaker who went down, the other boy retaliated with a stinging hex that made Ron yelp and Harry had his wand in his hand before he'd even made a conscious decision to draw it.

Neville foolishly stunned the boy that had been levitating Belinda which freed Belinda as intended, but also caused her to drop. As Neville and Hermione rushed to her side Harry and Ron turned their attention on the boy who'd thrown the stinging hex, but before they could stun him as well another stinging hex hit Harry's shoulder.

He whirled around and discovered that his attacker was a Ravenclaw girl who laughed and hit him with a colour changing spell that turned his robe blue.

"Why you," Harry growled changing his aim to her, but the girl turned out to be a remarkably good dueller who kept dancing out of his reach and deflecting spells back at him taunting him all the time.

"You're supposed to have defeated You-Know-Who?" she jeered. "Ha, you can't even get me! You're pathetic. It's all just some tall tale, isn't it? You ..."

For the first time in his life Harry actually understood why anyone would even want to use the cruciatus curse. He almost tried it in fact, but remembered just in time that it was an unforgivable and he'd go to Azkaban for sure if he used it on another child and one younger than himself at that. He needed something milder!

And then he remembered the spell in his Potions book and the note 'for enemies'. If this girl wasn't the sort of enemy a schoolboy like the Half-Blood Prince would have meant Harry couldn't imagine who else might be.

"Sectumsempra!" he shouted and the girl collapsed right where she'd been standing blood pouring from the slashes in her chest.

That ended the fight and the shrieking quite suddenly as everybody froze in horror at what Harry had done.

Only later did Harry learn that after checking Belinda Hermione had left her in Neville's care and realising that it was too late to stop the fight herself run straight for the Great Hall and alerted the Professors. That action saved the life of the Ravenclaw girl as one of the professors that rushed to the scene to break up the fight was Professor Snape who knew the counter curse and had the presence of mind to cast it on her right away, pick her up and run straight to the hospital wing.

Harry wasn't aware of any of this at the time, though. He just stood there numbly staring at the pool of blood spreading on the ground while Professor Flittwick levitated the first years off the chandelier and Professor McGonagall sent the walking injured after Professor Snape and transfigured a robe for the naked Nathalie to cover herself with. He did follow as if under the imperius curse when she herded the remaining fighters off to the headmaster's office, though.


	25. Chapter 25: The Seer Overheard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: So, we left Harry and co on their way to the headmaster's office. What will Professor Dumbledore do?

Chapter 25: The Seer Overheard

 

The headmaster listened to Professor McGonagall's hasty report in silence, glanced over the assembled students and then asked the Professor to take the rest to wait outside his office while he talked with Hermione first.

"Don't let them out of your sight, though, Minerva," he added. "I fear we might see a repeat of the incident if we leave them unsupervised."

It didn't seem like the caution was necessary, though. The group waited meekly and silently with Professor McGonagall having nothing more to do than to stand between the Gryffindors and the Ravenclaws looking stern and angry.

Harry was still feeling too shocked to speak or even pay much attention to what was going on around him.

How could there have been a spell like that in his beloved Potions book? Why would a boy like the Half-Blood Prince even write down a spell like that to use on his school rivals?

And then Harry realised that that wasn't what he had written into the book at all. He had written 'for enemies' and Harry had assumed that by enemies he must have meant fellow students What if he hadn't though? He still didn't know when the Half-Blood Prince had been at the institute. What if it hadn't been just a few years before Harry, but before Harry had even been born? Back then the Wizarding World had been at war with You-Know-Who and enemies would probably have referred to the Death Eaters. Perhaps the Half-Blood Prince had intended to become an Auror and help fight them. He had taken Potions which was one of the NEWTs subjects required for that profession. Wouldn't it be perfectly sensible for a wizard who knew that he'd be fighting dark wizards when he graduated to collect all the deadliest fighting spells he could?

And Harry had mistaken it for a simple hex and cast it on an innocent child! Oh, how he hoped that he hadn't killed that girl!

Hermione didn't take very long in the headmaster's office. She came out after just a few minutes and sent the Nathalie with the blue and silver hair inside.

"What happened, Hermione?" Neville asked her nervously "What did he say?"

"Oh, he just wanted to know exactly what I saw and why I ran into the Great Hall instead of letting Ron handle the situation. I described what everybody was doing when we arrived, how Ron told them to stop and they hexed him instead and how I realised that he wouldn't be able to control the situation and we'd need an adult to fix it. I didn't know how the fight started, though, so he decided he needed someone who'd been there from the beginning. It's going to be fine, Neville. You only tried to help a prefect break up a fight. Ron has the authority to do that. You didn't do anything wrong."

"I caused Belinda to fall and be hurt," Neville argued. "They probably wouldn't have dropped her if I hadn't interfered. They probably would have levitated her onto the chandelier with the others. What if she's badly hurt now?"

"She isn't," Professor McGonagall said. "I would never let a badly injured child walk to the hospital wing on her own. She was stunned by the fall and has several large bruises, but I doubt that there's anything more than that wrong with her, certainly less than there would have been if the weight of three girls had torn the chandelier off the ceiling and they'd have dropped down all the way with it. I'm sure any moment now Professor Snape will return from the hospital wing and report that she is fine."

And he'd probably also tell the headmaster what Harry had done to that poor Ravenclaw! But the minutes ticked by and there was no sign of Professor Snape.

Instead Nathalie came out of the office again with her hair back to its normal colour and what was probably a lemon drop in her mouth. She nodded at the other Nathalie.

"Your turn."

"What happened?" her remaining dorm-mate, Mary, demanded of her.

"Nothing really. He just fixed my hair and asked me what happened. I told him and he said we shouldn't have taunted those idiots, but if thatâ€™s really all we did he can't really give us detention for mere words."

When the other Nathalie returned she reported the same and Mary went into the office looking a lot less pale than before.

Five minutes later Professor Snape walked past them without even glancing at them and entered the office unbidden even though Mary was still inside.

She came out only moments later fuming despite her lemon drop.

"Detention," she reported. "For attacking the idiot that was floating Belinda about. I was just trying to save her and didn't even do him any harm!"

"Ha! Serves you right, little bitch!" The idiot in question announced before Professor McGonagall silenced him.

Mary had heard nothing of Professor Snape's report and when the Professor himself came out he didn't answer any questions either. He simply sent the first of the Ravenclaws in and turned to Harry.

"You," he ordered sharply. "Come with me!" and led him to an empty room that was apparently used to store superfluous desks and chairs.

"Where did you learn that spell?" he demanded sharply.

"I didn't mean it!" Harry wailed. "I had no idea what it does. I thought it was just a normal hex!"

Professor Snape grabbed Harry by the shoulders and shook him.

"Where! Did! You! Learn! That! Spell!" he repeated shaking him harder with every word.

"I didn't! Honestly! Is that girl alright?"

"Of course not. She's been slashed open and almost died and will probably be scarred for life," Professor Snape snarled. "Now where did you learn that spell?"

"From a book," Harry admitted.

"Don't lie to me! That spell is in no book. Never was and never will be."

"How would you know?" Harry demanded. "There are thousands of books in the library. You can't have read them all. And ... and it was in a book. How to cast it, I mean. It didn't say what it does. That's why I remembered it. I wanted to try it to see what it does."

"I know," Snape hissed. "Because that spell is my own creation and I never let it be published. It is much too dangerous."

Professor Snape's own creation? Was he the Half-Blood Prince then? But that was nonsense why would Professor Snape give himself such a weird nickname?

No, most likely the Half-Blood Prince had been his classmate. The Professor had taught Potions for years so he probably had taken a NEWT in it and someday during a seventh year Potions lesson he'd told somebody about this horrid spell.

"Well, I suppose somebody must have seen you use it and written it down then," Harry declared. "Because I found it in a book. You know you didn't teach me so where else do you think I could have learned it?"

Professor Snape still didn't believe him and gave him detention every Saturday until he told him the truth.

When Harry realised that that meant that he'd miss the final Quiddich game of the season he almost decided to bring Professor Snape the Half-Blood Prince's book to prove his statement, but then he realised that the Professor would probably confiscate it and show it to Professor Slughorn and then Professor Slughorn would know that he had been cheating in his class all year.

So Harry resigned himself to missing the game instead.


	26. Chapter 26: The Cave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Just detention ... oh, and a kiss.

Chapter 26: The Cave

 

Even though Harry wasn't the only one who had to serve detention with Professor Snape that Saturday it felt like a torture specifically designed for him. Mary followed him down from Gryffindor tower to Professor Snape's office silently. The four Ravenclaws were already outside waiting. At least that proved that the girl Harry had cursed had recovered. Nevertheless she was the last person Harry had wanted to meet.

Luckily she didn't say anything, but just glared at Harry so darkly that Mary sought shelter behind his back.

It was a good thing that Professor Snape arrived shortly after the two Gryffindors and let them into not his office, though that had been the location given on Harry's detention slip, but an empty classroom next to it. It didn't make a big difference, of course. They wouldn't be able to hear a sound from the Quidditch pitch here any more than they would have in the office.

The Professor assigned each of them a desk with a filing box on it, the Ravenclaws on one side of the classroom, the Gryffindors on the other and ordered them to check the files for legibility and copy those that were too faded to read easily onto fresh ... detention forms.

Harry started to pull files out of his box and found to his surprise that they were indeed detention records from some twenty years ago. About every second or third one seemed to be about 'James No. 6' and 'Sirius'. There never were any last names mentioned of course but Harry was quite sure he knew who those two boys had been and he really wished not to be reminded of either who his father was or that Uncle Sirius was dead.

Did Professor Snape know about his secret exchange of owls with Uncle Sirius? Harry had never told him, of course, but Professor Dumbledore knew and might have shared the information.

Time seemed to crawl and Harry suddenly became aware that there had been no end time stated on his detention slip. How long would Professor Snape keep them?

The Quiddich teams were probably already in the changing rooms now. Would they get a chance to see the end of the match? Harry crossed his fingers and hoped that it would be a long game.

Now the game would be starting. Katie and Theodore, the Ravenclaw captain, would shake hands, mount their brooms and push off.

Cho would most likely rise high straight away and then circle wide. What would Ginevra do? Would she circle as well or hover in the middle of the field ready to dart in any direction the moment she spotted the golden glint of the snitch?

Either strategy had its advantages and downsides.

Ten minutes into the game, fifteen minutes, half an hour, fifty minutes, an hour ...

Professor Snape gave no sign of even being aware what time it was. He was grading essays. Maybe he'd simply let them go when he'd finished the stack? It looked awfully high, though.

Over an hour later Professor Snape finally sat up, put the last sheet of parchment back on the stack, got up ... and carried the stack out only to return with a new one.

By the time he finally dismissed them it was quite dark outside and the game had to be long over.

When the Fat Lady swung aside to let them in Harry could hear that the victory party was in full swing and when he stepped through the portrait hole heads turned and an obviously tipsy Ginevra rushed towards him, slung her arms around him and kissed him full on the mouth.

Oh well, perhaps he could live with her playing better than him after all.

Still it would have been nicer if he'd gotten to watch the game and be kissed as he explained to Hermione the next morning.

"Well, then you should have been a little more cautious about that Prince fellow," she declared. "Or girl, actually," she added to his surprise and proceeded to show him an old article about one Eileen Prince captain of the Hogwarts gobstone club.

For a moment Harry was excited, but then he saw the date of the article. This girl had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago while Professor Snape the self-confessed inventor of the Sectumsempra spell which the Half-Blood Prince had copied had been in the same year as his parents about twenty years ago as his detention had so annoyingly reminded him.

Eileen Prince could not have written down a spell thirty years before it had been invented.


	27. Chapter 27: The Lightning-Struck Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Professor Dumbledore has found the cave, but Harry isn't that keen on an adventure ... Will he get what he wants, though?

Chapter 27: The Lightning-Struck Tower

 

Harry was quite surprised to get another note from Professor Dumbledore asking him to come to the headmaster's office a few days later. Hadn't the headmaster said that he'd already told Harry all he knew about You-Know-Who and his horcruxes?

But of course Harry went just as he had been ordered. He had disappointed the headmaster by cursing that Ravenclaw girl and he was very aware of it. He didn't want to disappoint him again.

"Well, Harry," Professor Dumbledore greeted him quite happily when he arrived. "I believe that I have discovered the location of another horcrux. Would you like to come along on a big adventure and retrieve it with me?"

Harry shook his head vehemently. This clearly was a task for adults and most likely adult Aurors at that. He certainly didn't feel up to it.

"Oh well," Professor Dumbledore said sounding disappointed once again. When Harry hung his head however he added: "That is your right, of course. Let me tell you what I have found out, though."

As it turned out the headmaster had managed to determine the location of the cave in which You-Know-Who had once tortured two little Muggle orphans and believed that there was a horcrux hidden there.

"The place is significant as it is the first where he used his magic to hurt another human being," the Professor explained. "I do not know which horcrux it is alas."

"Will you show me how to destroy it once you have it?" Harry asked hoping that that would at least reduce the headmaster's disappointment.

It worked. Professor Dumbledore's eyes lit up and he smiled.

"Of course. Gladly in fact, though it will not actually be myself that destroys it. I discovered that I am not quite as up to that task as I thought I was the last time I tried."

He held up his black, withered hand to underline the statement.

"Then who?" Harry asked. "The Aurors?"

"Oh no," Professor Dumbledore said shaking his head. "They might be brave, but they are neither more powerful than I am nor do they know as much about dark artefacts. No, we will ask Professor Snape to help us. He is the best expert on the dark arts and on Voldemort himself that the light side has."

Harry wasn't quite sure how he felt about that. Professor Snape was the dispenser of his weekly detentions after all and quite displeased with him at the moment.

Still he had asked to see the horcrux destroyed and it had pleased the headmaster so he was determined to go through with it.

It was only after his return to the common room that he realised that Professor Dumbledore, the only man You-Know-Who feared was leaving Hogwarts institute that night.

What if You-Know-Who found out and made use of the opportunity to attack? What if it had been You-Know-Who himself that had arranged for Professor Dumbledore to get the information about the cave just so he could attack the school?

It took Harry quite a long time to fall asleep that night and he had terrible nightmares once he did.

He probably hadn't been asleep for all that very long either when a crashing noise woke him. Harry sat up with a scream since he had just been dreaming that Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange were chasing him through the dungeons in flying boats.

"I'm sorry," he told his dorm-mates out of habit. "Nightmare."

"You didn't wake us up this time," Neville said.

"And it isn't a nightmare either," Seamus added. "It really sounds like there's a magical battle outside."

"And how do you know what a battle sounds like?" Ron demanded. "You've never heard one before."

"I have," Harry said shuddering as he remembered the Ministry of Magic and his Uncle Sirius falling through the veil. "And it does sound like that. Maybe we should ..."

He was interrupted by another much closer crack as a house-elf appeared in the middle of the room.

"Little masters is not to leave dorms and under no circumstances to open portrait hole," she announced. "There is Death Eaters in the institute. Little masters is to wait until Aurors has taken Death Eaters away."

"But we could help fight," Dean suggested. "We're NEWT level students. We know fighting spells."

"No, little masters not fight!" the elf shrieked. "If little masters goes outside, little masters must open portrait hole and Death Eaters can sneak in! Then Death Eaters gets little first year masters! Little first year masters no knows fighting spells!"

"She's right," Harry agreed. "We can't know how many Death Eaters there are outside. If they are just outside the door they might overwhelm us before we can close it. They won't hesitate to use unforgivables on us or the first years."

So they sat and waited listening to the sounds of battle and flinching at the sudden bursts of multicoloured light they could see through the windows. Harry didn't think he'd ever really enjoy fireworks again.


	28. Chapter 28: Flight of the Prince

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: The battle is over, but who has won?

Chapter 28: Flight of the Prince

 

At some point there was a particularly bright green flash, something big and black fell past their window and then the sounds from outside changed somehow and grew fewer and more distant while the flashes from the grounds became more frequent.

The boys all crowded around the window, but it was too dark and the flashes of light were too short to identify the figures outside. They looked like they were running away and growing fewer after reaching the edges of the forest, though. Were they fleeing into the forbidden forest and hiding there, or were they apparating away?

A sudden flare of dancing, flickering light finally illuminated the scene more permanently and for a moment Harry felt joy that they were finally going to be able to see, but then he felt one of the bodies pressed up against him shudder.

"What's that?" Seamus said in a strangely small and weak voice. "What's on fire?"

"It must be Hagrid's hut," Neville said a little more steadily. "Well, the grounds-keeperâ€™s hut. We don't have a grounds-keeper, though, right? So there's nobody in there?"

"I think Professor Grubbly-Plank is the grounds-keeper," Dean said. "But maybe she doesn't live there? I hope she got out alright, if she does. There's no way anyone could still be alive in there now."

"She must have already been outside," Neville declared. "She can't have slept through all that noise. And she has no first years to protect in there. She's probably been out there fighting the whole time."

That wasn't quite as reassuring as Neville had probably intended it to be.

"She could still be dead," Harry muttered more to himself than to the others. "She could have been killed in the fight. She's just a grounds-keeper, not an Auror or even Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor. And even Aurors get killed. Aurors get killed all the time, just like Uncle Sirius."

"Groundskeepers are pretty tough, though," Ron offered. "Just look at all the dangerous creatures they work with."

The burning hut illuminated that part of the grounds, but there still was very little to see. The last few dark figures disappeared, some towards the forest, the rest, much more slowly, back towards the castle and all was silent. Clearly the battle was over, but the hut burned on unattended and nobody came to tell them that it was safe to come out.

"We should get dressed," Ron said as the first light of dawn began to peek over the horizon. "It's almost time for breakfast."

"We can't go to breakfast," Neville objected. "We aren't allowed to open the portrait hole."

"But we need to eat," Ron argued. "And we have classes. And the battle is over. The Death Eaters have fled."

That was true and Harry started to look for his robe.

"How do you know that was the Death Eaters?" Neville asked not moving at all.

They all stared at him.

"It might have been the professors that have been driven out of the institute and it might be in Death Eater hands now. If the Professors had won wouldn't they have sent another house elf to tell us all is well by now?"

"But ... but ..." Seamus' voice was very shaky. "Our Professors wouldn't abandon us!"

"Of course not," Neville assured him. "But they are only teachers, not Aurors and there are only so many of them. They can't fight an army. They probably had to retreat and get help and they are expecting us to stay safe in the common rooms until they get back with an army of Aurors."

"But how long will that take?" Ron asked. "How long will we have to go without food?"

"The house elves can bring us food," Dean pointed out. "But we'd better go downstairs and make sure nobody else is stupid enough to open the portrait hole and go to the Great Hall for breakfast."

So they showered and got dressed. When Harry took a last look out the window before heading downstairs the hut had collapsed, but was still burning. Soon there'd be nothing but ashes left of what had once been Hagrid's hut.

At nine classes should have started but all of Gryffindor house was still gathered in the common room. No house elf had come either to tell them that it was safe to come out or to bring them food, so they had collected everything edible they had and were trying to make a meal of chocolate frogs, pumpkin pastries and bubble gum.

A fourth year girl had brought down a harp from her dormitory and those Gryffindors that were in the institute's choir were bravely trying to entertain the rest with their songs, but not even the first years seemed very interested.

Nathalie and Nathalie were playing a half-hearted game of Exploding Snap, but most of the cards exploded while the players were staring at empty space or the portrait hole.

There had been no sounds from that direction so far, but surely the Death Eaters would start trying to break it open soon.

"Maybe they don't know where the entrance is?" Romilda ventured hopefully.

"Peter Pettigrew knows," Harry destroyed that hope.

But perhaps Peter Pettigrew was not with the group that had taken the institute? Or perhaps he had been killed in the battle? How many other Gryffindor Death Eaters were there?


	29. Chapter 29: The Phoenix' Lament

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Harry learns of Albus Dumbledore's death, but where is the horcrux?

Chapter 29: The Phoenix' Lament

 

Eventually the students became aware of another melody sounding somewhere outside, a strange and terribly sad song. Some children went back up to their dorms to have a look out the windows and soon word drifted back into the common room that a strange burning bird was flying around the grounds singing while silver drops fell from his burning body.

There was some argument over whether it was a firebird or a phoenix, but Harry had little trouble identifying him.

"That's Fawkes, Professor Dumbledore's phoenix," he informed his dorm-mates "I wonder whom he's trying to heal, though."

"Maybe the burnt hut," Seamus suggested.

"The burnt plants?" Neville offered. "That might work if they are still alive."

"You don't think there were any injured animals in there when it caught fire, do you?" Dean asked.

"If so they're already dead," Harry said. "Even phoenixes can't heal the dead."

"He's just a bird," Ron pointed out. "He probably doesn't know."

Fawkes was still singing when the long expected house elf finally appeared and told them to come down into the Great Hall.

It was a bit early for dinner and indeed there was no food on the tables when they arrived, but almost the entire staff was assembled along with a number of strangers, some of whom wore Aurors' robes.

Harry chose a seat at the far end of the Gryffindor table when he recognised Auror Potter among them. He did not want anything to do with the man. Most likely, he thought, it had been he who had let the Death Eaters into the institute and now he was playing the good Auror who had helped to defend it.

When all the students had arrived Professor McGonagall stood up to speak to them. Only then did Harry notice that Professor Dumbledore was not there. But of course he had left to get that horcrux! Harry hoped that he wouldn't feel too bad when he returned and learned what had happened.

"Last night," Professor McGonagall announced. "Professor Dumbledore left the institute on some important business. During his absence a group of Death Eaters attacked and destroyed Honeydukes in Hogsmeade. Somehow they managed to get into Hogwarts from there. How they could have achieved that when every entrance to the castle was strongly warded against them and Professor Dumbledore had reinforced those wards right before his departure is still under investigation."

There was some hissing among the adults behind her, but Harry was much too far away to understand anything except for Professor McGonagall's exasperated: "Severus! James! Please!"

"The Death Eaters cast the Dark Mark over the institute which alerted Professor Dumbledore and the Aurors as well as our dear friends of the Order of the Phoenix. In the ensuing battle Professor Dumbledore was killed and several others were injured. I am happy to be able to inform you that they will all survive and that two Death Eaters have been captured. In the aftermath of the battle there is a lot of cleaning up to be done, however, so classes are cancelled until further notice. For the moment I will be acting headmistress and Head of Gryffindor house, but I expect that we will have a new headmaster before the start of the next school year."

"If they don't close the institute entirely," Professor Flittwick interjected.

"Indeed that is a possibility, but in that case they will have to provide an alternative place of education for magical children," Professor McGonagall confirmed. "I do not think that that will be possible on such short notice. Now I suggest that those of you who are in contact with your families go and write owls to reassure them and any of you that know or suspect they know or have overheard something that could shed some light on how the Death Eaters got into the institute or what the important business Professor Dumbledore left the institute on might have been, please come to see me in the headmaster's office."

Harry obediently went to the headmaster's office straight after the announcement, but found that quite a crowd had already gathered there.

Professor Sprout took everybody's names and told most of them that they should return after dinner as the headmistress didn't have time to speak with all of them before then.

So Harry went to the common room and wrote a letter to his mother as Professor McGonagall had suggested. Auror Potter could rot as far as he was concerned. Besides he had been here the whole time anyway. He knew what was going on.

It was actually almost curfew by the time Harry finally got to see Professor McGonagall. At least by then he had also figured out exactly what he was going to tell her.

"I have information on both questions," he stated right away so she wouldn't dismiss him after his first explanation. "I think the Death Eaters got in through a secret tunnel that used to lead from the statue of the one-eyed witch into the basement of Honeydukes. That must be why they attacked the shop. And I think they found out from Auror Potter. I know of the tunnel from a map he drew."

"That doesn't mean that he must have told the Death Eaters as well," Professor McGonagall said. "In fact, if he found that tunnel as a boy, Peter Pettigrew probably knows of it too. They were close friends back then. Why didn't you report this sooner when you knew it posed a danger to the institute?"

"I ... I thought the headmaster already knew, Professor. He ... ought to have the map anyway ... have had the map, I mean. I lent it to the false Professor Moody and you and Professor Dumbledore searched his things after he got arrested and I never got it back."

Then he explained that Professor Dumbledore had told him that he was going to retrieve another of You-Know-Who's horcruxes and had promised to let him watch when he and Professor Snape destroyed it.

"I will inform Professor Snape of this," the headmistress promised. "If Professor Dumbledore did bring back a horcrux he is the best qualified person we have to even touch it. Do you know where the horcrux was supposed to be hidden in case Professor Dumbledore aborted his mission early because of the Death Eater attack?"

Harry told her all he knew about the cave which was pathetically little, but if Professor Dumbledore had been able to locate it hopefully so would she.


	30. Chapter 30: The White Tomb

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: And we close with a mystery ... No, not that one.

Chapter 30: The White Tomb

 

The next afternoon Harry was called into Professor Snape's office.

"You said one of the missing horcruxes was a locket, I believe?" the Professor asked when he arrived obediently.

"Yes, Professor, Salazar Slytherin's locket," Harry confirmed and to his surprise the Professor held a locket out to him.

It was not the one Harry had seen in the memories that Professor Dumbledore had shown him.

"I found this on Professor Dumbledore's body," he stated and when Harry flinched away added. "It is neither Slytherin's nor a horcrux and quite safe to touch, though you are quite correct to assume that a horcrux would not be."

Harry accepted the locket and turned it over in his hand.

"Open it," the Professor instructed and when Harry did a folded up note fell out.

He read it and then looked back at the Professor.

"So the horcrux has been destroyed by R.A.B. whoever that is?"

"We have no proof of that," Professor Snape stated. "He intended to destroy it, but destroying a horcrux is not easy and if my theory concerning his identity is correct he did not survive his defection from the Death Eater ranks for very long. It might not have been enough time to do it in."

Harry glanced back at the note.

"R.A.B. Who do you think he was?"

"Regulus Arcturus Black, younger brother of your departed ... uncle Sirius Black," Professor Snape stated. "He lived in the very same house that you inherited and you will turn seventeen soon. We need to search every crack in the wall and the space under every floorboard for the real locket which means that we need access to it. However I believe you said that you dislike the place and intend to sell it?"

"I don't have to do that right away. I just ... don't think that I could live in his house. Not after the way he died."

"How sentimental," Professor Snape said with a sneer. "We will let you know if we find the horcrux. After that you will be free to sell it whenever you like."

Harry nodded, thanked the Professor and returned to his friends. If there was a horcrux of You-Know-Who in that house, he wanted to live there even less, but then there was no need to. He still had another year at the institute ahead of him after all.

 

Two days later they attended Professor Dumbledore's funeral, a rather strange affair with a huge number of guests of all sorts of magical races. Harry stood next to Hermione, Neville and Luna since Ron and Ginevra had preferred to sit with their mother and brothers and Mafalda insisted on going with her dorm-mates.

Harry felt a little abandoned, but then Ron's oldest brother, Bill, had been terribly mauled by a werewolf Death Eater during the battle and this was his first time out in public with his now scarred face. Harry could understand that he wanted his relatives to serve as a buffer between himself and strangers.

Harry's father and his wife were present as well and Draco had joined them, but Harry's mother had not come and so Harry preferred to stay with his friends.

It proved to be a wise choice as Harry noticed Rufus Scrimgour with the Potters on his way back in and Draco later told him that the Minister had been looking for him. Harry's efforts to avoid being seen and stopped by Auror Potter had spared him another meeting with the Minister as well.

The next day their lessons resumed. Harry didn't have a class at 9 am however and since his homework was all long done went to sit in the common room and chat with Neville until they both would have to go to the greenhouses for their Herbology lesson.

They had only been there for a few minutes when one of the two Nathalies and two Gryffindor first year boys returned unexpectedly. Each was carrying some sort of white piece of cloth with a leather strip attached. They walked past the older students and disappeared up the stairs to their respective dorms.

Harry looked after them and tried to remember whether he'd ever had a lesson in which some students had carried about such strange items in first year. He wouldn't have been at all surprised if they had been third years or older, though Professor Grubbly-Plank didn't seem to be nearly as fond of weird projects as Professor Hagrid had been. Still the objects might be used to catch, carry or bandage some magical creature, if first years had Care for Magical Creatures in the first place.

Well, perhaps they were the result of a Transfigurations mistake. Harry shrugged it off and turned back to Neville ... just as the portrait hole opened again and four second years walked in also carrying just such weird cloth things.

The second and first years couldn't both be having Transfigurations now and even if they could have they wouldn't have been working on the same transfiguration.

Not long after them followed third years and then fourth years. Then fifth year Colin almost collided with Nathalie on her way out with a half-filled sea-sack slung over her shoulder. That was what the cloth things were! But what could they be for?

"What ..." Harry started to ask, but just then a house elf popped into the room.

"Master Harry Potter please to report to Mistress Professor McGonagall's office."


End file.
